Worlds Greatest Swordsman
by OnihumoExplosionsInc
Summary: The Straw Hat Pirates have all been scattered to help the hero's of various worlds. Zoro ends up in a universe full of gods and monsters. With an unknown father, and the normal Straw Hat antics, he will help Percy become a great hero as well as make friends along the way.
1. Chapter 1

**Also, I Works Cited this entire work. Both to One Piece and to Percy Jackson and the Olympians. The ideas and characters in those works bolong to the authors.**

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Floating in the deep void of nothingness, a place where thoughts and identity have no meaning, a group of nine extraordinary people people were being considered by an entity. This entity, often referred to as Death by humanity, had a plan. It nodded once, with all the finality of a casket being lowered it the earth, and seemed to clap Its hands.

At once a viciously bright light shone, and the small humans, so seemingly insignificant against the greatness of the being, appeared to be standing in a blank white room. The being smiled to itself, these people would do very nicely for Its plans.

The nine people, known formerly as the Straw Hat Pirates had all died. They knew it and accepted it, after all they had all managed to complete their dreams before dying together as a family. They also felt no need to fight or ask any questions of the Being in front of them, which was worrying quite a few members of the crew.

The being gave a raspy laugh and then spoke to them, " **You have done a great many good things as well as a great many bad things in your life, Straw Hat Pirates. I would say that you are very lucky.** " And at that it stood there, waiting for them to gain their voices.

It didn't have to wait long before the navigator spoke, "What do you mean by lucky? We are dead, right?"

" **Exactly right. You have all entered my domain. No the reason for your luck, besides the Lady Luck favoring you, is that your good and bad balance out. This means that none of the others can take you from the eternal limbo unless I allow it."**

"Ah, Mr. Death, how is that a particular good thing?" asked the archeologist with a particular morbid interest. After all, this entire conversation just proved the existence of an afterlife. It could be an interesting topic of study.

" **Because, Nico Robin, both Order and Chaos took an interest in you. Chaos might like you, and Order might hate you, but both forms of contact are very dangerous for mortal souls.** "

The Captain looked up from where he had his fingers very high up his nose, "so we do nothing for the rest of our deaths? That sounds so boring." And he flicked his booger off to the side as his crew nodded at his words.

" **For most people, yes. But I am willing to create a realm in death for you to just travel on seas and be able to do whatever you wish there. I will even bring the friends and allies you had in life to sail this new realm with you. However, first you must do something for me.** "

The captain looked at the Being in front of him, an uncharacteristically serious expression on his face. "What do we gotta do?"

Death nodded, satisfied, " **Either I, or some friends that I owe a favor, have particular**

 **people who we favor or are integral to a particular world. Should you accept, you will be split up and reborn in different worlds to help these people fulfill their destiny or create a new one. You will be told of who you must help, and I will even allow you to keep the important abilities or objects in your life. In return it will be as I said before, I will even allow the new friends you make to go to this new realm as well. Do you accept?** "

The Straw Hat Pirates looked at each other, before nodding to the Being.

" **Excellent,** " and they all faded, headed to the correct place, the place that each one would be able to help the best.

Death grinned, knowing that he wouldn't be as bored as usual for the next several decades.

 **Eiichiro, Oda. _One Piece_. Shueisha, 1997. 85 Vols.**

 **Riordan, Rick. _Percy Jackson and The Olympians_. Disney Hyperion, 2005. 5 Vols.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Roronoa Zoro, now Okubo Zoro, woke up several months after his birth in this new world. The first thing he did was attempt to begin training. Of course, as he was a baby with next to no muscle and a lack of coordination it didn't work that well.

It wasn't so bad though, being a baby. Yeah, the food was terrible and he could barely move, not to mention diapers, but the person he began to recognize as his mother (and wasn't that new) was kind. She sang to him, fed him, changed his diaper, and did all of it without any help.

Zoro figured that either his mother had him without getting married, or his father was dead. It didn't really matter to him much, unless of course someone had broken his mother's heart. She deserved the best, not getting her heart broke.

His opinion was not being influenced by the fact that he had seen her cleaning a clearly high quality katana while she sang him to sleep.

Either way, Zoro knew that he'd have to start training as soon as he was capable again. Death had told him that he was supposed to help some brat called Percy Jackson complete his destiny. Something about titans or giants… eh he'd figure it out eventually. All that he was really supposed to do was fight a whole lot of people and teach some kids how to fight with a sword.

An evil grin lit up the face of an otherwise innocent seeming baby at the thought of the tort-training, a baby with oddly natural green hair. He'd really startled his mother when she saw his hair color. However she did get over it very soon, something about Zoro's father…

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Life didn't really get interesting very much until far later. Yeah, Zoro trained as well as he was able to, but it didn't really go anywhere for the first several years, it did serve to make his mom happy… and for some reason caused her to coo at him like he was adorable. He wasn't cute. Still, she let him look at her sword, Yoarashi, which was a very good katana. A little bit bloodthirsty, but Yoarashi really liked his mom and worked well with her.

His mother, to her eternal exasperation, also seemed convinced that he kept on getting lost. Zoro though, was adamant in claiming that the rest of the world just liked to move around when he wasn't watching it. This just earned his mom becoming extremely paranoid in trying to make sure that she always knew where he was.

How a toddler managed to get all the places Zoro did, his mother would never know.

But other than learning to live with the woman, his Mother, known as Ririko Okubo life was extremely boring in the toddler years.

However, it was on the day that Zoro turned five and his mother took him to her family's dojo for the first time, that life began to get interesting again. While he lived in a place called America now and spoke in a new language, his mother also spoke in his old language which was now called Japanese. She claimed that she was a Japanese American and that she wouldn't let him forget where he came from as she 'taught' him her language. Zoro didn't mind though, but America was interesting, he had to admit. It could be easy to forget some parts of the past if you weren't reincarnated from a place that spoke the language of your new ancestors.

Zoro looked around the dojo, very interested in this new place. It seemed like a good dojo, almost like his old one from when he was a kid the first time. Many different weapons were hanging on the wall, including some decent katanas.

"Hey, kid, you Riri-nee's brat?"

Zoro looked over, mildly impressed the man had snuck up on him even in his child form. The man looked a lot like his mother, with the same spiky black hair and dark eyes. While he'd kept his old hair color, his eyes now looked like his mother's.

A hand came out of nowhere and smacked the man upside the head. The hand was attached to Zoro's mother, Okubo Ririko. "Of course he's my kid, little brother. Now be nice to your nephew," she scolded him.

The man leaned down and grinned at him. "Hey kid, I'm your uncle Satoshi," a bit of mischief lit his eyes, "So, since I finally get to meet you, do you see anything that's caught your eye?"

Immediately Zoro pointed to the katanas on the wall, "I want to learn how to fight with a katana."

Ririko gave a smug look to her brother, "I told you he'd take after me."

Satoshi just grinned, "Well, I suppose there was always a good chance he'd be like you and just know exactly what he wants the moment he walks in here. Well, kid, I'm sure you'll be a natural. After all, there is nothing else an Okubo could be."

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Four years after he'd first gone to the family dojo, and Ririko was finally letting him use a third sword. Apparently in this world more than two swords was never really used by anyone.

Zoro had been practising, and even if this world seemed to have a lower baseline of strength that wouldn't stop him from regaining everything he had worked for in his old world. Because even though he had become the World's Greatest Swordsman on his last world, in this new world he was starting over.

It sounded like a lot of fun.

However, what was not fun was going to school. Zoro already knew what he wanted to be when he got older, and it didn't require learning about algebra. Yes, reading and writing was important in life, but a lot of the stuff the teachers taught was useless to him.

So all the teachers knew that Zoro didn't really want to be there. And since the teachers didn't really like him because he didn't even try, the other kids would try and pick on him because he didn't have that protection.

Not that they succeeded. Being a swordsman, even one limited by a young body, was very helpful in that regard.

It was at ten years of age that Zoro found his first friend in his new world, the person he was supposed to help, Percy Jackson.

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It was a new school year, and Zoro had had too move to a different school. The principal had refused to allow him back after he'd left behind a mess of traumatised teachers with sharp blade phobias. The guy had even called his mother to 'talk' about his behavior, of course she'd just coolly looked at the guy before calmly leaving with him to go back to the dojo. When she announced what Zoro had done to all his teachers to the rest of the family, they'd thrown a party. Uncle Satoshi had loudly proclaimed how proud he was of his little nephew. Apparently traumatising the teachers was a right of passage for the Okubo family.

That night, Zoro found all three of his swords, Wado Ichimonji, Sandai Kitetsu, and Shusui, lying on his bed. They all greeted him, same as they'd done in his previous life. It was comforting, hearing the voices of his blades after so long.

"I guess that you guys are all excited as I am to face this world's best, and become greater than them. A whole new world to fight…"

And all of the swords showed their readiness, burning with the desire to best the world again. Wado was glad, because even though Zoro had kept the promise the first time, he would do it again in this new world.

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Zoro left his house to head to his new school. It wasn't that long of a walk, though his mother was right beside him the entire time. She had this odd idea that Zoro would get lost if she looked away for even a second. It wasn't his fault buildings liked to move. He also wasn't allowed to bring weapons to school, as it was apparently illegal, but he'd worked with one of his cousins that specialized in hand to hand to better his mutoryu technique so he'd be able to defend himself if need be.

He was fairly confident that he could take on even the weird monsters that crept around everywhere in this new world without his swords. Or at least the ones that he saw regularly, which seemed to be mostly wimpy and weak. Even going easy on them he couldn't get a fight to last more than a minute.

Though his mom did seem kind of upset the first time he hunted down a monster to fight. Probably because he didn't tell her. She then tried to explain to him about the monsters, but gave up when she realized that he didn't really care.

All that she asked was that he didn't go after the stronger ones, she called them the named ones, until he was older. And while he normally would have ignored anyone who interfered in his quest to become the strongest, for Zoro's mother he was willing to wait until he could train his body to be far stronger.

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Sitting in his new classroom, Ms. Sylvester's class, it looked a lot like Zoro was taking a nap at his desk in the back. However, even though he was dozing Zoro was very much aware of where every single person in the room was. He'd mastered the ability of napping and paying attention to his surroundings a long time ago, first on the Thousand Sunny, and then later during his training with Mihawk.

He waited throughout the first day of class, which was even more boring and useless than every other class day, for school to end so that he could go home and practice. At lunch time, when they all had to go outside for recess, he went out and sat under the tree to take a nap. The one thing that school was good for was sleep.

Most of the other kids stayed away, 5th grade being a grade where the kids are far more interested in running around than just napping. It was during his nap that a group of kids Zoro's age surrounded one of the 4th graders near the tree. They mostly seemed to be making fun of the 4th grader because he was new, and a seemingly easier target than Zoro, who was fairly tall and muscular for his age.

Zoro was mostly content with ignoring it, until the 5th graders started to beat the kid up. Admittedly, they weren't doing a very good job of it, but the kid didn't seem like he was very good at defending himself either.

Right as a particularly ugly bully began to punch the kid named Percy Jackson, Okubo Zoro, the World's Strongest Swordsman in his previous life, intercepted the fist.

"Hey," shouted the bully, "what do you think you're doing!"

For the first time inside of the new school, Zoro grinned as he easily defeated some bullies.

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Zoro was waiting outside of the school after class ended, for some reason his mother refused to let him walk home by himself. As he stood there leaned up against the side of the school building, footsteps hesitantly walked towards him.

"Why?" called out a voice, a voice full of the knowledge that it was alone in the world and that no one would help it without asking for something in return. The type of voice that Zoro had heard in his own nakama, heard every time Luffy gained another crewmate. It was the sound of a person who desperately needed someone to shore up the cracks, that needed someone to lean on.

Zoro, even if he hadn't been sent to this world to help this kid, would have helped regardless. Because someone had hurt this kid, people that the kid was powerless to stop, and Zoro… well, if you asked any of his nakama they would say that for all Zoro seems tough, he is a softie for kids.

"Because," Zoro told him.

The kid frowned, "That's a stupid reason."

"Well kid, it's the only one I got. They were weaklings anyway."

The kid actually frowned at that, "How did you get so strong? I mean, you beat up those bullies like it was nothing."

"Look, kid, it was nothing. And I got strong by working hard for it."

Big, hesitant sea-green eyes looked at him. Then, "Can you teach me?"

"What do you have to protect?" At that the kid stared at him incredulously, seeming to ask how Zoro knew that. "No one looks that determined without something to protect, and you seem like the type to ignore your own issues while focusing on others. So, who is it?"

"My mother, Sally Jackson," he said, "She keeps on getting hurt, and I can't do anything to stop it."

"A mother, huh?" Zoro nodded, "I know I'd beat up any scum-bag who dared hurt mine. So, who's the person beating on her?"

Percy Jackson looked scared then determined as Zoro spoke, before he said in a quiet but determined voice, "My step-father, Smelly Gabe."

"You have a deal, Percy Jackson."

It was at that moment that Ririko pulled up to the curb in her car. She looked out, noticing the kid standing next to her son (A kid that wasn't being ignored or beat-up) and said,

"Who's your new friend?"

"Mom," Zoro said looking her in the eye, "This is the kid, Percy Jackson, and I'm going to be teaching him."

And both Okubo's grinned viciously at each other, causing apprehension to fill Percy Jackson's body. 'What have I gotten myself into' Percy wondered.

He really had no idea what kind of hell training the Okubo's were about to put him through.

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It had been a month since Sally Jackson's son had made his first real friend. And while he was happier, was doing better, she was worried. He'd come home from his new friend's house, Zoro's house, covered in bruises and completely wore out. And even though Percy claimed he was fine… well it is a mother's job to look after her son. So Sally decided that she'd go talk to Zoro's mother while the kids were in school.

She didn't have a lot of time, having to walk to the Okubo house between work breaks, and even then she'd probably have to call in late to her retailing job. But for her boy, it was worth it. Anything was worth it.

So she knocked on the front door of decent sized house, and within a minute the door opened. It was a woman, with black spiky hair, and dark eyes, who seemed to be measuring her, or weighing her in some way.

Gathering her courage, Sally Jackson looked straight into the dark, fathomless pools of Ririko Okuba's eyes and said, "Can I talk to you? It's about my son."

Ms. Okuba looked at her for a moment, before nodding, "Come on in, It's Mrs. Jackson, right?"

"Please, call me Sally," said Percy's mother.

"You can call me Ririko," said Zoro's mother.

Looking around, Sally noticed the the inside of the house gave of an oriental feel, but it was also warm and cozy. The people that lived there obviously all cared for each other a lot. Ririko led Sally to her kitchen to begin boiling water for tea, before turning to Percy's mother and motioning for her to ask questions.

"Ririko, I am worried about my son. He keeps on coming home from your house covered in bruises, and I want to know why," Sally told the other woman. Ririko nodded, poured some hot water into two cups, and added teabags.

"My son has decided to teach yours how to fight," Ririko said bluntly, "Which I agreed with, especially when told of the reason he wanted to learn."

"What do you mean by reason?" Sally asked wondering how much a kid only a year older than her son would know about fighting.

"You," Ririko sighed, "Even though the kid gets beat up regularly, the reason that he chose for learning how to fight was to protect you."

Sally was conflicted. Because even though she was proud of her son, she wanted to do things on her own.

"You know," Ririko said, "I get it. Not wanting others to fight for you. I looked into you, trying to see what type of person you were, to make sure that Percy wasn't being abused by both his parents," At this Sally became guilty and kind of mad, she had known that Gabe was a terrible person but she'd thought that he'd mostly left her son alone, "So, here is what's going to happen, Sally. You divorce that jerk, and move out immediately. I'll be happy to have both you and your son staying at my house until you can find a decent apartment. Then, I'll teach you how to fight, so that you'll be able to protect yourself."

Sally choked, "I can't do that, not yet. I don't like Gabe, but for now I need him."

Ririko nodded in understanding with a smug smirk on her lips, "Because your kid's a halfblood, right? Don't worry, my family found a way to cover up the scent a long time ago, or else I'd be a lot more worried about Zoro's habit of getting lost."

"Zoro is…" Sally wondered.

"A halfblood, yeah. Okubo's figured all of it out centuries ago, though"

Sally looked unsure, "What do you mean?"

"Look," Ririko said kindly, "my family is made up of fighters, everyone specializes and finds what they are good at. This has a tendency to attract weird supernatural things, especially since all the best weapons tend to have an element of the weird in them. So, a long time ago we figured out how to hide our auras from various pantheons. It works so long as nothing is looking specifically for you."

"You can hide my son from the monsters."

"And you," Ririko insisted, "So, will you take my offer?"

At Sally's hesitant nod, Ririko's grin widened into the one that she had shown Percy Jackson when he had taken the offer of training. Unconsciously Sally Jackson's thoughts mirrored that of her son, but she was resolved to do the best for her baby, and loved the idea of an option that didn't involve Gabe Ugliano.


	3. Chapter 3

**Again, this is based off of works created by Rick Riordan and Oda Eiichiro. Citations in MLA are on the first chapter.**

Chapter 3

It had been three years since Zoro and Percy had become friends. After moving in, Sally had begun to train with Ririko, causing the extended Okubo family to see the Jacksons as family. Admittedly Sally had taken to guns as a weapon, which didn't often happen to Okubo's, but she had become extremely accurate, to the point of being called a sniper. Percy on the other hand was getting very good at wielding a greek style of hoplite blade. He hadn't yet found one that felt perfect in his hand, but when Percy had asked Zoro about it, Zoro had just given a bloodthirsty pleased grin (And how?) and said,

"That just means that your sword will be something special, something that you have to find and earn."

After that, Percy had become even more excited every time Ririko had let him and Zoro hunt down and fight monsters. At first, Sally Jackson hadn't wanted to let her son do something so dangerous, but Zoro's mom had convinced her.

"Look, Sally, if the kids never get actual experience fighting monsters then they will never be able to survive when they have no choice but to fight the monsters."

"I know," Sally said softly, "But I wish that I could protect them, that my son would never have to fight monsters."

"If you want," Ririko said cheerfully, "We could go and hunt down some monsters to fight together so that you can see how wimpy the unnamed ones are."

And that, was that. Though Sally did seem even more annoyed at her friend than usual for a while. It seemed that watching your best friend do crazy stunts and almost die just gave you a headache from repeatedly slapping your forehead at their antics.

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Of course, the first time Zoro and Percy went monster hunting didn't go extremely well. For the monsters that is. Though it did cause Zoro's mother to burst out laughing at her newest friend because she finally realized just who Percy's other parent was.

The reason Ririko found out, Percy freaking out when some random Egyptian monsters threw him into some person's swimming pool. Besides accidentally causing a maelstrom, he found that he could breathe perfectly fine, well, almost perfectly fine. Chlorine for Percy was kind of like smoke from a campfire to other people. He was still capable of breathing, but it was more difficult and made his eyes water.

After Sally was done fussing at her son like the mother hen she definitely was, she made sure that her friend knew to keep what she'd found a secret.

"You think I'm that stupid?" Ririko asked, "And yes I know to keep the exact nature of his heritage away from the kid until he's old enough to take care of himself. Okubo's are good at hiding halfbloods, ordinary people to, but unless their parents are really small time, then we can't stop the big time monsters and gods from finding them."

"Really?" Sally questioned. She thought that the weird cloaking things were pretty good at stopping the monsters from getting her son's scent.

"Yeah, it'll dull their presence once they find out, but unless they manage to make sure no one actually wants to look for them, our kids can be found if they know who their parents are," Ririko simply shrugged, "Eh, I have it easy compared to you, though. Zoro doesn't care, at all. Even if I tried to tell him who his father is, he wouldn't really listen to me because to him it's not important. Oh well, at least our kids have parents in the same pantheon, it would be so much more difficult if they didn't."

"So who is Zoro's dad?"

Ririko smirked at her best friend, who'd lived with her for three years, first inside her house- then in a house right next to her's, "You'll just have to guess. Don't worry, if you get it right then I'll tell you. I promise." 

"You better."

For some reason, until after the weirdness that happens at the end of that school year to the boys, she never did figure out who Zoro's father was.

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That year, both Percy and Zoro went to school at a boarding school for 'troubled' kids known as Yancy Academy. Percy because of his penchant for attracting trouble along with his ADHD and dyslexia, and Zoro because he didn't care about school beyond what was important to furthering his dream and he also kept traumatising teachers. By this point though, Percy was mostly just exasperated every time a teacher ran away screaming about demon children.

Though, Zoro's school work policy had somehow lead to him knowing both physics and ancient world history very well, if only for highly specific things like the history of various swords or how to calculate how much force it would require to swing a sword hard enough to knock someone back without killing them. It had been downright scary the first time Zoro had shown off his flying slashes, though for some reason he seemed a bit disappointed in them.

"Dude," Percy yelled, "You just decapitated a Dracaenae without even touching her, why in the world are you disappointed!" If Percy could do something that cool he wouldn't be so disappointed- Wait, he probably could do something that cool. Something with water? Maybe like extending his sword with water… but that's really boring sounding… Hmmm…

As Percy went of in a tangent in his own mind about how to do something as awesome as the flying slashes that Zoro did, Zoro explained why he was so disappointed, not even realizing that Percy had stopped paying attention (Though he didn't really care if his friend knew why or not), "It only went about three feet of the edge of my blade, and even then it didn't really decapitate her, it only got about halfway through severing her head before she crumbled to dust. I really do have a long way left to go to become the strongest swordsman in the world."

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About two weeks into the new school year, two interesting things happened. One of the Latin teachers had to be replaced because of a completely random nervous breakdown, and a new kid moved into the school. The teacher, Mr. Brunner, quickly became one of the more popular teachers to both the sixth and seventh grade students, mostly because he was a very good teacher. Even Zoro paid at least a little attention in his class, though that could just be because Mr. Brunner would occasionally give out little tidbits of information about swords or swordsmanship in ancient times.

The new student, however, quickly became a target for bullies, mostly because he was a cripple and seemed naturally nervous. The kid, named Grover Underwood, had been about to get pounded by some of the big, slow moving bully types that exist everywhere when both Percy and Zoro came to his rescue. Well, Zoro was the only one that actually fought the bullies, Percy just led Grover back their room, of which Grover had been an occupant of for less than five hours at that point. The reason Zoro was the only one who fought the bullies? Apparently, for reasons unknown (CoughZeusCough), the principal hated Percy and was just waiting for an opportunity to suspend him. Which didn't make sense as to why he'd ignored Zoro's penchant for making teachers quit with a nervous breakdown.

"Why?" Grover asked Percy as they closed the door to their dorm, both panting slightly from running all the way back (Which admittedly wasn't extremely fast because Grover still had to use crutches), "I mean, we barely know each other, you left with Zoro about ten minutes after we were introduced, and I'm just some useless nobody! You didn't have to-"

"You're right, I didn't have to do anything," Percy told him resolutely, "But I did want to. Because I was in exactly the same place you're in right now, and if someone didn't come and didn't save me, didn't decide to teach me how to defend myself, then I'd be pretty useless to. I don't like bullies, especially when they pick on people who don't deserve it. Besides, you're my roommate, and roommates stick together, right?"

"Who? I mean, saved you. Who saved you?" Grover squeaked out.

"Zoro. Who else? Besides, he's pretty good at teaching people how to fight," Percy looked over at Grover, whose slightly whiskery chin was still trembling and whose eyes were still bright with unshed tears, and sighed, "Yeah, you're definitely gonna need to learn how to defend yourself. Maybe with your crutches? Then you'd always have a weapon with you."

Grover looked shocked towards his roommate for a moment, just about everyone at Camp Halfblood had given up on ever teaching him any truly useful skill (He wasn't even that good with panpipes, what satyr couldn't play the panpipes?), so now he was just a bad joke. The Satyr that couldn't really protect anyone, and that just had a good sense of smell to find demigods. But this guy… he didn't look at Grover and see worthless, he saw someone who had potential to learn. But what if…

"What if Zoro doesn't want to teach me?" Grover asked miserably, knowing that it was a miracle one person looked at him and didn't automatically think useless, but two people was…

BAM!

And the door to the room closed violently, with Zoro standing there looking self satisfied, and having blood on his knuckles.

"I hope that you're fine with learning how to fight," Zoro said with a very dangerous smile towards Grover, "Because that was kind of pathetic. Though, I doubt very many people would have told you to fight when they believe you're crippled."

"But I am crippled!" Grover shouted, forgetting for a moment where he was and who he was talking to, "I'm useless, and terrible at everything, and I can't do anything right!"

"Tch," snorted Zoro, with Percy nodding along to his words, "You have difficulty using your legs. That just means that you become even more awesome when you overcome the weakness everyone else sees. Crippled? That is just a word other people use because they think that you are less than them. At least, the people who hurt you used it to mean that."

"Now," said Zoro, "Is there anything that you'd particularly like to learn, preferably an actual weapon, but just about anything can be turned into something useful to fight with."

The thing about Grover, was that even though he was terrible at playing the panpipes, he'd always wanted to learn… "The Saxophone. I've always wanted to learn how to play the saxophone."

Percy looked over at his best friend, to see if he looked dismayed at what Grover had chosen, or if Zoro disliked the idea of even trying to fight with an instrument, but Zoro looked thoughtful. He remembered both Scratchman Apoo and Igaram, even Brook found ways to weaponize music. A saxophone… well, even if Grover couldn't learn how to do the same kind of things that Appoo could do because of his devil fruit, the saxophone could undoubtedly be modified to also shoot bullets like Igaram's, maybe even reinforced to be used as some sort of club.

"It could work. Maybe reinforce to be a club for school, but if you like the idea you could also use it to fire bullets or some kind of needle. Though it's too bad that you can't use the sound to create a shockwave or to slice through the air," Zoro seemed a little disappointed at the thought.

"Dude," said Percy, "That would be so awesome. I mean, play music one moment, fight the next, then continue with the music. You could even fight and play at the same time! It's kind of like having your own battle music theme all the time. Though it would be cool to make the air explode."

Grover looked happy for a moment (Maybe because if he could figure it out, he could cause explosions with music), then frowned, "Where in the world would I even find a saxophone like that anyway. Especially not one that shoots bullets, which is admittedly kind of cool."

"Eh," said Zoro, walking over and lying down on one of the beds, "Don't worry, my mom'll know something."

"But…, wait did he just fall asleep?"

"Yeah," replied Percy while he frowned at the bed Zoro was lying on ( Which happened to be his own), "He probably meant to go back to his own dorm to sleep, and ended up here by mistake. Don't worry about the sleeping thing though, he naps everywhere, and I do mean everywhere."

"But if he's sleeping on your bed, then where are you going to sleep," asked Grover nervously.

Percy shrugged, "Chill, stuff like this happens a lot, I've got a backup plan." Then he reached under the bed, pulled out a cot, pillow, and several blankets, then began to assemble the cot.

Grover blinked, "Well, alright then. Why do I get the feeling that somehow I'm the normal one," he muttered. Percy grinned when he heard him,

"That's because you are."

Of course, Percy wouldn't be able to truly appreciate the truth of that statement until Christmas.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

It had been half a year since then. Somehow, Zoro's mom did manage to find a saxophone that would do exactly what he'd asked (Shoot bullets when played, reinforced as a club). Though her payment for finding it was that Grover had to come home with Zoro and Percy for Christmas. Grover had been fine with that, until he met Zoro's mother, and then he was completely terrified of her.

Part of this was that it took her about ten minutes to realize that he was a Satyr, at which time she'd both bluntly informed everyone of that fact, and also asked what he wanted. Of course Grover almost burst out crying when she did, it took Percy confirming that he didn't care what species Grover was, and Zoro looking entirely unconcerned for him to calm down.

Though, Grover was confused as to why Ririko (Or as he called her, Ms. Okubo) would even know what he was. After all, he was fairly certain that she was a regular mortal…

Ms. Okubo actually rolled her eyes, "Do you think that no one knows about the pantheons, kid? There are a lot of people who know, my family is just one of them. And we're only one because our's is one of the families that attracts various gods as… well." It was her wicked smirk that let everyone gathered into her living room on the first day of Christmas break, from Sally Jackson who sported a wistful smile to Satoshi who was the only member of the Okubo family present besides Ririko and Zoro (Everyone else was… busy. But Satoshi would never miss being with his sister for Christmas), know exactly what she meant.

Zoro looked at her contemplatively, "You're sure that whoever it was didn't hurt you, Right? Because then I'd have to find them and beat them up." Grover looked terrified for a moment, hugging the case of his new tenor saxophone (Of which he was already far better at playing than his pipes, which he had kept only for sentimental reasons) to his chest, and mentally praying that Zoro's parent wouldn't be one of the more powerful gods. Or offended by their child's claim. Both would be great, actually.

A very amused Ririko was the answer, "We've talked about this before. I was bored, your father looked very nice. We beat up some idiots in a park together. Not a bad date at all."

Zoro turned to look at Mrs. Jackson, "Your guy didn't hurt you either, Aunt?" At her amused headshake, because Zoro asked this question at least once a month as though he thought that if he asked enough times their answer would be different, Satoshi gave a bark of laughter.

"Look, my violent and protective little nephew, if you want to fight these gods so bad, or any god, just ask to duel them to make sure that they are awesome enough to have dated your mom or aunt," Satoshi explained. And Zoro's eyes lit up, happy that he could fight some gods (And protect his mom, not that he'd tell anyone though).

"Wait," said Grover urgently, panicking a little, "You can't just fight a god, I mean, they could crush you or curse you, or take a fight the wrong way!" The Satyr really didn't want one of his very few friends to die or live with some fate worse than death. Zoro could get turned into some monster, that would then really like goat meat, and then Grover would die because Zoro could utterly destroy him.

As Grover was having a little panic attack on the chair where he'd sat after he had been outed as a mythological creature, all of the present Okubo's gave him an extremely deadpan look.

"We're Okubo's," Satoshi explained, "We are the very best at fighting, few can claim to top any of us in our chosen field. I wouldn't even be surprised if the same thing happened to you, the lovely Ms. Sally, and Percy. I mean, the Jacksons are practically Okubo's at this point, and Zoro has decided that you're his responsibility."

"What!?" Came out the startled yelp from the Satyr.

Zoro looked at him from where he'd sprawled on the floor as soon as he had deemed the conversation as becoming uninteresting, and grumbled, "Relax, all that means is that I'm teaching you."

"What he means," said Uncle Satoshi, "is that we don't teach just anyone. You must have some good potential. Also, as soon as you're good with that saxophone, I'd like to hear you play, Jazz is my favorite genre of music."

"Heh, snob," said his sister.

"Just because I occasionally like to do creative things, doesn't mean that I'm a snob."

"Oh really, what about when…"

"Drop it," Sally asserted, "This is Christmas, we have a guest, and you two are behaving like actual children." Ririko simply nodded with what could loosely be described as a pout on her face whereas Satoshi…

"Of course, oh magnificent sniper lady, and may I just say that you are looking particularly lovely this evening!"

Yeah, Zoro wasn't that happy about his Uncle turning into some weird copy of Sanji the moment he was near Aunt Sally, but at least it was only her.

Apparently, when they had first met Sally had threatened Satoshi in a very violent manner, which he deserved for trying to sneak into his mom's house, and he'd fallen in love with the way that she'd threatened him so coolly with a rifle pointed at his head.

Yeah, his uncle was weird.

"Back to Aunt Riri's first question," Percy interjected, "What exactly does Grover want with me and Zoro."

 **If anyone wonders, the first chapter is just to have a decent explanation as to why the Straw Hat Pirates are being reborn in various worlds. I think that I mad it up, but it sounds weird enough that I could have read the idea somewhere. I don't believe that I read it anywhere, but my memory is not very good.**

 **And yes, every friend, ally, or relatively benevolent enemy will end up in the Eternal Adventure, which will end up being the One Piece equivalent of Heaven for those who end up there. Any new friends will also show up, which means even if their endings aren't happy in the story, their afterlives will be. It could be fun, after I am all done, writing about what happens when everyone meets.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Again, this is based off of works created by Rick Riordan and Oda Eiichiro. Citations in MLA are on the first chapter.**

Chapter 4

Grover had managed to catch their scent and realize that both of them were pretty powerful demigods. Then he had told Chiron, who'd apparently gotten orders from high enough up that the old immortal had gone to watch over them himself. Ririko was extremely impressed, he'd managed to scent through the cloak on them, which she'd figured nearly impossible. When she told him so, Grover had blushed and looked really happy for the complement.

Of course finding out Mr. Brunner was really the nigh immortal hero trainer Chiron was also a bit shocking, especially since he had come the specifically for Percy. Zoro was more of the bonus, it seemed.

"Hmm," Ririko thought out loud, "I suppose that Percy's father must have asked him to help, no other reason for Chiron to leave the Greek camp." She'd already worked it out, of course, but hinting to the children that Percy's parent was such a big deal was a lot of fun. Especially the look on his face, it was so adorably panicked, she hardly ever saw him freaked out or panicked anymore. It seemed he had inherited the voice of reason from his mother, which was hilarious considering who his other parent was.

Both Zoro and Percy were completely fine with the fact that their friend was a satyr sent to basically kidnap them to the Greek camp.

All that really changed from the boys knowing that Grover and Chiron were there to recruit them to Camp Halfblood was Zoro and Percy's summer plans. Though Percy made sure that they would still go to Montauk.

"Of course we're still going," his mother told him, "After we're done, Ririko and I will take you and Zoro to the camp."

"Aunt Sally," said Zoro, "you have to add Uncle Satoshi and Grover into the trip."

Satoshi, ever since he had first met Sally had always followed them on the trip that Sally had asked Ririko to take with her, regardless of whether he was invited or not. And Grover, well, Zoro wasn't going to let the poor kid go back to the camp without them if he could help it. After all, Grover had to have gotten his poor self-esteem issues from somewhere.

And Zoro could tell exactly what it was, so his new friend was going to stay near him until he found the right person to fight.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

After Christmas break, all three new friends were hanging out in Percy and Grover's room. Zoro hardly ever slept in his own room, mostly because he couldn't find it. When Grover expressed his worry over the reality bending powers of Zoro getting lost, Percy told him not to worry so much about it.

"Look, besides being awesome enough to handle any monster on his own, human or otherwise, Zoro will always end up exactly where he's needed at exactly the right time."

So the matter was dropped, and school drudged on. The only interesting thing to do for any of them, especially Grover who'd admitted to going through the sixth grade multiple times already, was practicing their separate fighting styles.

Ms. Jackson had given Grover some tips on accuracy, and Satoshi, whose fighting style involved duel wielding a dagger and a sai, had helped him learn how to deal with opponents that didn't fight with a sword. It was something required of all Okubo's, so that they knew how to properly counter just about anyone they fought. Plus, the saxophone club had the potential to be a decent sword breaker if used correctly.

Both Percy and Zoro worked on refining their technique, with Zoro also working to regain the strength that he had had in his previous life, and Grover fast became skilled in playing the saxophone. After the others had found out that he was a satyr, Grover had even told them that he was trying to incorporate his nature magic with his new music.

Saxophone music did different things with nature than pipes did, instead of earth and green things tending to react to it, the air was far more likely to respond. That's not to say that the saxophone couldn't affect growing things, but it seemed that different instruments and styles of music were preferred by different parts of nature. It looked like the wind had a preference for jazz music and other similar kinds of music.

It would be interesting to know what different instruments could do, but Grover would have to get other Satyr to help him. Maybe Gleeson Hedge would be willing to help out, he didn't really play his pipes but maybe a trumpet or bugle would work for him.

The idea worked out fine so far though, because the wind and the air both liked the ideas that Grover nudged them with using nature magic. Wind blades, sonic attacks, and concussive blasts were all coming along nicely. Very nicely indeed.

Wait, that sounded entirely to evil. And excited. Oh dear, Zoro had rubbed off on him more than he had thought.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

There was going to be a field trip to some museum. It was 'educational' and since it involved learning about the greek and roman stuff in the museum, Mr. Brunner was the head chaperone.

That wasn't the issue. The other chaperone was, however, a major problem. Her name was Mrs. Dodds, a math teacher seemingly from Georgia that had shown up after Christmas. After his first class with her, Percy remarked that she was inhuman. Grover told both Percy and Zoro that she was definitely inhuman, so Zoro asked him what typed of monster she was. He was very interested in seeing if she was one he'd never fought before.

Grover looked terrified, "Zoro you can't fight her! She's a…" he looked around and lowered his voice as if he thought someone would overhear them, "Kindly One." Grover still hadn't managed to get rid of the ingrained fear that the Greek camp had instilled in him. Sometimes Zoro was reminded of Usopp with how terrified the satyr was.

Percy just looked a little exasperated, "And for those of us that don't know the secret lingo the Greeks use?" Sometimes, Percy just wondered how he became the sane, rational one. Then he thought of his mother, and how she acted with the elder Okubo's, and realized he must have gotten it from her.

It meant that regardless, he had to keep his head because otherwise Zoro would slaughter everyone and everything, and Grover would burst into nervous bleating before freaking out. The things he did for his friends.

Since Grover looked too terrified to speak, Zoro finally just gave up. He wanted to fight Mrs. Dodds, but he would wait until Grover wasn't around. Mind made up, Zoro leaned against the wall to take a nap. His friends just stopped, resigned to missing another English class, but not willing to leave Zoro alone in the hallway.

What Zoro didn't know was that Percy would fight Mrs. Dodds long before he ever got the chance.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

So, the three friends sat on the bus to the museum, Percy and Grover sitting next to each other on one side of the bus, while Zoro sat directly across from them. Even though the bus was practically full, nobody sat next to Zoro. This was because almost everyone was terrified of him, but that was beside the point.

A red-headed girl named Nancy Bobofit tried something with Percy and Grover (Throwing PB&J wads at the back of their heads), but all it took was a warning growl from Zoro to get her to stop.

For some reason, the stupid kid had it out for Percy and Grover. Like everyone else she was terrified of/and-or ignored Zoro. One day he would find out why people alternated back and forth between those two states around him in this world.

"One day the rabid dog won't be there to protect them," Nancy muttered, just loud enough to be heard by Zoro. Of course, both Percy and Grover could protect themselves, but the principal hated them and would suspend them if they did so. Zoro really didn't understand why he wasn't lumped in with his two friends, especially considering that he got into fights, slept in class, and gave nervous breakdowns to teachers that weren't secretly Greek Myths.

Mr. Brunner was a pretty good teacher though, Zoro had to admit. And Mrs. Dodds was just plain tolerant of him, as though she'd seen and dealt with worse.

Either way the trip didn't last that long, and soon everyone was piling off of the bus and crowding through the doors to get inside the museum. Almost as soon as they got inside, the kids were herded to the old Greek and roman stuff. It was a little bit boring, but at least it wasn't at school.

They walked around, most of them not really paying attention and acting exactly like the hyperactive delinquents they were.

Of course, then they reached a stele, one about a very long dead girl. A reincarnated swordsman, his sane best friend (In this universe), and a nervous saxophonist satyr were the only ones to notice that Mr. Brunner (AKA Chiron) was looking at the stele with grief and pain. The trio figured that he had known the girl on the stele, had probably taught her, and so they all, even Zoro, were silent and attentive to the ancient trainer of heroes.

That didn't mean that everyone had the same respect. And when, after the trio was slowly getting ticked off by the constant giggling, Nancy Bobofit made an extremely rude comment that was made worse because Chiron was there, it was Percy who snapped at her before either of his friends could do anything. Which was impressive considering that Zoro was one of his friends.

Of course it didn't end there. Mrs. Dodds was giving of and evil superior aura, like he'd made a mistake, all of the kids that weren't his friends began laughing harder, and Mr. Brunner just seemed to study him for a moment before asking,

"Percy, could you please explain the meaning of this part of the stele to the class." And then the person who was secretly Chiron looked at him expectantly.

Now Percy, well it took a lot to make him lose his temper recently, dealing with Okubo's tended to do that to people. Or just cause them to go crazy, one or the other. So he was kind-of embarrassed about snapping at every body.

Looking over at the part of the stele Chiron had indicated, Percy only felt relief. This was something that Aunt Riri like to tell as a story, how the greek gods became the power in their pantheon. Of course she went rather deep into theories about various parts, including how unfair she thought that the whole thing was to Hades and her theories of the stupidity of Kronos.

It was this that inadvertently caused Percy's uncle from L.A (Hades) to realize that his most recent nephew actually might not have taken his helm, and that he should probably not kidnap his mother just to get it back. After Mrs. Dodds reformed and reported back, of course.

Because when Percy spoke of the war between the gods and the titans, he spoke of it like how Aunt Riri had told him and Zoro the story when they were younger. Needless to say, it wasn't like what most half bloods had been taught.

"A really long time ago, there was some stupid prophecy or something, that caused the big bad titan guy Kronos to decide to eat his children. Which was a stupid move because that's what eventually caused the guy's downfall, because his wife decided to hide little baby Zeus and feed her husband a rock. Yeah, she was probably really angry at him, bad move on his part. Didn't he know that most prophecies are self fulfilling?

Then, many years later, Zeus grew up, decided that he wanted siblings or was trying to make his mom happy, and made his father throw them up. And so, because of either their father's terrible parenting or in an effort to make their mom happy over no longer having to deal with her horrible husband, they declared war on Kronos. Then they won. Threw people in jail or various punishments. Almost immediately after that, the three brothers began arguing over who gets which area of the spoils, ending with the eldest brother getting the worst end of the deal."

Chiron stared at him for a moment, as if trying to process what just happened.

"Now Sweetie," came the voice of Mrs. Dodds, "Why do you believe that the eldest brother got the worst deal." Most of the students were confused because Mrs. Dodds was a math teacher, not the Latin teacher, and shouldn't be asking questions about myths.

Percy, while not really knowing what myth his math teacher was, figured that she was interested because she was from the underworld. This caused him to gather his thoughts in order to explain better than the half-baked ramblings that came from his aunt Ririko.

"Well, I mean, even if Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades all chose to be exactly what they ended up ruling(which isn't true in all versions of the myths), that doesn't mean that they wouldn't want to visit each other. But Hades wouldn't be allowed on Olympus, except for on one day, and then there was the entire mess involving his wife. I don't really know too much about it, but mostly it sounds like the guy was lonely, tried to go through correct channels, and then everyone thought the worst about him because he ruled the underworld."

After this, the class quickly moved on, eventually ending up outside to eat lunch. All through this, Mrs. Dodds thought about what the demigod child had said. While she still was bound to kill him (or die trying), she would inform her lord of the recent happenings. Mainly about at least one of the non-underworld demigods not hating him purely because of the myths.

 _'The kid probably didn't steal the helm, or even the master bolt_ ,' she admitted, but that didn't mean that she'd go easy on him.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

Zoro, Percy, and Grover were eating lunch. Nancy Bobofit dumped her lunch on Grover. Normally this is where Percy would get so mad that the water would grab her and pull her into the fountain, but in this universe Percy had become the guy that had to think things through because no one else would.

That didn't stop Zoro from throwing Nancy into the fountain. Or Mrs. Dodds from accidentally-on-purpose mistake it for Percy and use it to make him follow her inside. It also didn't stop Chiron from following them inside.

Percy followed Mrs. Dodds back to the Greek and Roman room. When she turned around, then turned into a giant monster with wings he was a little startled, though.

"Do not resist," Mrs. Dodds told him as she swooped in for the kill, "And your end will be quick." Percy didn't believe her, and he also didn't want to die. He was about to reach into his pocket for the knife that he kept for emergencies when Mr. Brunner showed up.

He threw a pen at Percy, seeming to believe that it would help him, so Percy caught the pen. Only, when it hit his hand the pen was a sword. A sword that he could feel was perfect. Perfectly balanced, his hand felt completely natural wrapped around the hilt, everything felt perfect. And the sword itself, it whispered to him. Normally it took a lot of meditation for him to be able to hear the voice of a particular weapon, but this one… well, he might not be able to hear it loudly, but he could hear it.

So, when he swung his new blade at his math teacher, Riptide the blade sung to him its name, it was no surprise that he bisected her. Or that she turned into dust that crumbled away.

So he stopped to question his new sword for a moment. Then he found a pen cap on the ground, stuck it to the end of the sword, and put the pen into his pocket before walking outside. It started to rain in big fat droplets, with thunder rumbling in the background.

Mr. Brunner looked up from a newspaper, "Ah, Mr. Jackson, I believe that you have my pen?"

Percy shook his head, "I don't have your pen, Mr. Brunner, I brought my own." The sword that pretended to be a pen was the sword that Percy had been waiting years for. And he wasn't about to be separated from it.

Chiron narrowed his eyes at the boy, before saying, "Perhaps I lent it to a different student." Though he did wonder why Percy was hiding the pen in his pockets, but decided to only summon it back to himself if his student lost it.

You never knew when a monster killing sword would come in handy to a demigod, after-all.

Percy never did lose his pen, especially not after Chiron made it so that it would summon to his pocket no matter what when he reached Camp Half-Blood.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

Mrs. Dodds was gone, but no-one noticed. Everyone thought that Ms. Kerr had been their teacher, everyone barring Zoro, Grover and Percy. Mr. Brunner knew to, but his acting was so good that even Grover occasionally thought that he'd been fooled by the mist. Though when Grover had mentioned it to his friends, he was somewhat shocked to realize that they'd never heard of the mist.

"Why would we know about the mist," Percy asked with exasperation while Zoro gave a Look at the confused satyr, "We do not know the Greek slang, how many times do I have to tell you."

"Then how do you explain the reason the mortals can't see monsters and stuff," Grover wondered. The average person couldn't even see Zoro's swords, and katana's definitely aren't Greek!

Zoro snorted, "Every pantheon has a different explanation, and it always fits perfectly over their weirdness."

Percy nodded, "Some say that the mind of an average person can't handle it so they aren't able to comprehend it, others, like the Greeks, just say that some form of magic causes them to overlook it. It just really depends."

And the rest of the way back to school was spent in silence, with each friend contemplating what had happened on that day. Percy connecting with his new sword, and Grover thinking about the existence of other pantheons.

Though Zoro was the only one sad that he didn't get to fight..

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

So, the school year went on for each student. The principal finally fulfilled his dream of getting to kick Percy out near the end of the year, when he got into a fight with a kid who insulted his mother.

They allowed him to finish the school year because it was his first offense though.

Zoro was getting kicked out because he'd tied the kid that had insulted his aunt to the top of the school flagpole. Wearing only his boxers. And stole all of his clothes, dyed them an offensively bright pink, and left them in the lost and found room.

Well, technically Grover had done that last part. As well as thought up the first part, but Zoro had taken full credit because he didn't want to ruin his friends record. Or credibility with the teachers.

If it was only him, Zoro probably would have just beat up the kid. Hey, no-one had ever accused him of being creative with revenge. And it was a relief that they'd kicked him out, he had done more than enough stuff for that to happen. One day he'd find out why people were acting so weird about him. There was a sneaking suspicion that it had to do with the elusive father that his mother kept on mentioning.

 **:I wonder, can anyone guess the reason why Zoro's hair is green in this universe.**

 **And beyond that, I regret the fact this chapter took so long. I was incapable of typing for 17 days in a row. This chapter was originally supposed to stretch to reaching the camp. Oh well.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Again, this is based off of works created by Rick Riordan and Oda Eiichiro. Citations in MLA are on the first chapter.**

 **Oh, and for this chapter, yes I realize that the timing is different. But this is going to end up butterfly affected, not just a rehash with the inclusion of Zoro. Don't worry, they'll have the same amount of time to retrieve the lightning bolt, Percy gains the days he lost unconscious due to his fight with the Minotaur.**

Chapter Five

School was over. Finally. Every final exam taken, all the bags packed and ready to go. The trio were all going to Zoro's home together, Ririko had insisted. Zoro suspected that she was throwing a party and didn't want to have to invite anyone over. He was just glad to be going home because none of his family were terrified of him, nor did they ignore him (and yes, he was including his Aunt Sally as family).

Chiron had tried to talk to Grover about how he thought that Percy and Zoro might suspect something, but Grover had gotten so nervous that he'd actually started bleating. Chiron didn't want to give the poor satyr a nervous breakdown, especially since he'd figured Grover was panicking because of what happened to the previous demigods he had brought to the Camp, so he'd stopped talking about it.

Zoro figured that this was a good thing, because Grover couldn't lie. At all. Seriously, it was so pathetic it was funny when Grover tried to lie.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

So, the bus was fastly approaching the area were Zoro and Percy's house resided in when a loud boom sounded, and the bus rumbled to a stop a foul smell suddenly permeating the inside. The driver was extremely confused, because the bus had been in perfect working order that morning, so he asked all the passengers to get out so that he could fix the issue.

It was a swelteringly hot day outside, without a single cloud in the sky or even a breeze to cool things down, and none of the three friends were enjoying the heat that was apparent out of the air-conditioned bus.

Across the road was a fruit stand.

At first only Percy saw it, with its three old ladies sitting there. They were knitting a massive sock together, and even though it seemed a little ridiculous something about them made it feel utterly serious.

Then Grover saw them, and paled. He knew that those harmless looking old ladies were actually the Fates, and that seeing the Fates was never a good sign. After all, if you saw them snip a string it meant that you would die, and they almost never visited mortals except to tell of their deaths.

"Guys we should get out of here," Grover told his friends, people that he really didn't want to die, in a wavering voice. It was then that Zoro looked up and saw the ladies.

Zoro had been leaning up against the bus, mildly annoyed with the heat but mostly just relaxing. And when he saw the Fates, for no mortal can look upon the Fates unless they wish for the mortal to, even if they have haki or an equivalent, he knew.

The Fates weren't there for Percy or him, like Grover thought, but they were there as a warning for the future. A future that may not come to pass. So, as the three old women cut the cord in their hands, as Grover whitened with fear and Percy looked mildly sick, Zoro understood.

They were showing a death of someone, Zoro didn't know who it was as he'd not met the person yet, the most likely death of this person. And they were warning the three, either so that they could prevent it, or so that they would be able to accept it, or maybe simply as a warning.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no," chanted a frightened Grover, "This is bad, really really bad."

"What is," asked a slightly confused Percy. He knew that whatever had happened was big, but it didn't feel immediately dangerous to him.

"Those three old ladies are the Fates, and when they cut someone's string… that person dies," and here he looked terrified for both of his friends, not sure which was the one whose string had just been cut.

"You mean us? Are you sure? I mean, it didn't seem like…" Percy cut himself off, not sure as to what exactly it had seemed like in the first place.

"Relax," said Zoro, "We're not going to die. The Fates didn't cut one of our threads, and even if they did that was a warning of the future. Whoever that is won't be dying for a while yet."

He wasn't really sure why he knew this, it had nothing to do with haki or anything from his previous life. The surety felt natural, like it was a part of him. Which was a weird feeling, though he supposed that it was good thing since he knew neither him nor Percy was going to die.

Eh, he'd worry about it later if it came up.

Grover still looked worried, but seemed inclined to trust the swordsman's intuition. Zoro often had surprisingly deep insights to different issues, and could discern things that neither Percy nor Grover could.

Not long after, the bus driver wrenched a 'random' piece of metal that had somehow become lodged in the engine out of the bus. It sputtered back to a start, and everyone piled back in.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

The bus stop wasn't that far away from the joint houses of Jackson and Okubo so they walked the rest of the way. Carrying luggage wasn't too big of a deal for any of the boys, and it wasn't like they really had to go to two different places.

Seriously, they were right next to each other and Uncle Satoshi had torn down the fence separating the back yards. Then rebuilt a superior fence that went around both yards. And ripped holes in the walls of both houses before making a covered walkway connecting them.

The only reason Sally tolerated the intrusion of her privacy by the general Okubo clan was that none of them messed with her when she was writing her latest book(The books had fast become best sellers in the United States). It only took Satoshi bothering her once during her writing time for none of the Okubo's to ever do it again.

It became legendary as the Great Watermelon Incident, and spread her fame among the Okubo's that hadn't yet met her.

Grover was still a little bit nervous around Percy and Zoro's family,well more Zoro's family than anything else. Okubo's were a scary bunch.

So, they all walked up to the front door, and Grover walked inside first. He actually bumped Percy out of the way in his hurry to get inside, and when Percy got in he realized why. Grover loved enchiladas. The house smelled like enchiladas, the good kind. 'Nuff said.

Across the entryway to the dining room was a sign that said 'welcome back' on it in bold letters. Next to it was a sticky note in Sally Jackson's handwriting saying that the party was in the back yard.

Grover bolted out the backdoor with Zoro following him. Percy just grinned, thinking it was his mom who'd done this with the purpose of making Grover more comfortable in her home. She'd asked him about the satyr's favorite food in her last letter, and was now obviously putting that knowledge to good use.

There were blue cookies at the welcome home party as well, and they were delicious.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

Part of the party was the immediate packing for the trip to Montauk, for which Sally Jackson was studiously ignoring Satoshi deciding to come along. Most of the rest of the Okubo's were making bets as to how long she'd resist his advances and whether or not they would actually get together.

Ririko really hoped she'd date and then marry her brother, because then she'd be able to claim Sally as a sister, rather than a best friend that's as close to the responsible sibling as she'd ever had.

Plus, it was hilarious to see Satoshi go all mushy as soon as Sally walked into the same room as him.

As soon as all the food was finished, the entire group piled into various cars, with Satoshi in Ririko and Zoro's car, and Grover with Sally and Percy. Then they all headed to the exact same cabin that Sally had always gone to. Admittedly, it was a tight squeeze with six people, but they made do because it was such a special place to the Jacksons.

It had become pretty special to Zoro as well, because it was the only place in the new world that he got to hear the ocean again. In his old world, it was impossible to live without having seen, smelt, and heard the ocean regularly.

And he did miss his crew and his ship, this beach in Montauk was probably as close as he would really get to sailing again until his death.

So they all goofed off at the beach for a couple of days, before Percy, Zoro, and Grover had to go to the camp for the summer. Ririko had offered to be the one to drive all of them in her car that could really only fit four.

Mostly so that Sally would have to stay behind. Alone. With only her brother as company. What could she say? Ririko really wanted them to get together, and if that meant playing matchmaker, then so be it.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

It wasn't long before Ririko's tiny car came to a large hill with a massive pine tree on top of it. She'd been a little nervous because of the darkening sky and the wind picking up, knowing that Zeus probably really didn't like Percy and would definitely throw a lightning bolt at him, but it seemed that the cloak was holding up so far.

It would almost certainly become far less useful by the time both boys walked out of the camp.

But so far Zeus hadn't really noticed Percy, though that would change the second he entered the camp. However, by then it would be far too late for Zeus to really do anything without starting an actual war. He wasn't that stupid, She hoped.

Ririko was also kind of surprised that Hades didn't try anything, but she'd take her blessings when she got them.

All three of the boys hopped out of the car, and began heading to the hill.

"Bye Mom," said Zoro with Percy and Grover echoing. And there didn't need to be any more words than that, because they'd already all said the more heartfelt goodbyes back at the cabin.

And so it was that Percy Jackson and Zoro Okubo somehow managed to make it across the boundary line of Camp Halfblood without anyone noticing until they reached the Big House. They'd never manage to get someplace that quiet and with that much ease ever again.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

It was actually fairly late at night when the trio got there, so they were pretty much undisturbed when they walked through the camp. Frankly, it seemed like some kind of security violation to not at least have one guard at the entrance to Zoro.

Grover quickly lead them to the Big House, but he was super nervous. Not only had he kind of went incommunicado with Chiron toward the end of the year, but Mr. D is really scary. He really didn't want to get on the god's bad side.

And he didn't know how the god would react to either Percy or Zoro. Though there might be a chance he'd like Zoro a lot, because ever since he'd first met the green-haired swordsman the guy had always attempted to get ahold of alcohol. Seriously, if he was just a little older, Grover would swear he was an alcoholic.

Thankfully, the only way he'd actually get his hands on some would be if his mom allowed it. And she claimed he couldn't even try it until he was older.

And Mr. D refused to allow alcohol in camp because he currently wasn't allowed to drink any. If he had to stay sober, then so did everyone else.

So they reached the porch, walked up, and Grover knocked on the front door. There was a couple of minutes before the door opened, and Chiron looked back at them shocked. Maybe because he was in horse form and none of them were freaking out, or maybe because they had managed to make it into the camp without attracting attention from any of the campers.

Considering that Poseidon had told Chiron to watch over his son, which he had done because he didn't want Percy to suffer the same fate as Thalia, and that Zoro seemed to be pretty powerful as well, was just a little bit shocking.

Later they would find out that Zeus had never managed to actually find the boys before they reached the camp that was directly under his influence, and thus hadn't been able to send monsters after them.

Hades, who was much better at finding people, had decided not to attack his brother's child. Admittedly, at first he had thought that Poseidon was the thief, maybe through his child, but the testimony of both Thanatos and Alecto against it had managed to persuade him to at least think beyond his grief and anger.

Not that he didn't have a right to anger and grief. After all, he was the only one that had not broken his vow, but his children had suffered the most. None of the others had had younger children at the time of the vow, but all of his had been killed or lost to him even though they were conceived before.

But Poseidon was the brother he actually kind of liked, even if they had drifted apart since the war with the titans.

And looking into the situation… well, an Okubo had gotten Sally Jackson, a woman who had caught his brother's eye, out of an abusive marriage. Besides the fact that he knew Okubo's tended to be a fairly honorable if crazy bunch, it said a lot that Sally Jackson was willing to stay in an abusive marriage until offered a better way.

His brother liked people who reminded him of the sea, and who could be strong willed and stubborn enough to match him. So for her to not go off on the scum that would undoubtedly earn the Field of Punishment meant that she had a reason. It wasn't difficult to find that the reason was her son.

And the son, Percy, was not the type to be subtle enough to sneak in, steal his helm, and leave no evidence of the theft.

That didn't mean that Hades wasn't a little bit ashamed at letting his anger over Poseidon breaking the oath to cloud his judgment. There weren't many things that the god of the Underworld was truly proud of, but his judgment was one of them. And nearly accusing an innocent that was having a Christmas party at the time of the crimes sat wrongly on him.

He still hadn't been able to find the true thief because something very powerful was protecting them, but it was only a matter of time now that he'd started truly searching. Though, he kept on accidentally finding random powerful demigod kids instead, like whatever was hiding the thief was hoping he'd kill them.

Hades wondered what would happen if the other gods knew the ridiculous level of information gathering Hades and all of the gods under his purview could commit when working together.

Which happened a lot more often than the gods of Olympus. Zeus, nor any of the olympians barring a very few, would listen to and help the troubles of the 'minor' dark gods. So Hades did instead, and they all were loyal to him for it. And he did far better than Zeus did with the people he 'ruled' over, though if there was ever a chance to strike back at Olympus he knew that many of the Underworld gods would take it, so long as he did not join his brothers and sisters.

And really, so long as none of them messed with Hestia, he'd be fine.

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"What…? Percy? Zoro? Grover what happened," It wasn't often that Chiron got caught unaware, but seeing two demigods he'd been convinced were unaware of their heritage at camp completely unperturbed… well. It was just a bit shocking.

Even if Grover had told them before they got to camp, they would still be awed or shocked, especially after seeing a centaur. Which means that they must have known for longer, maybe even had hid that they knew from him. Which was odd.

"Sir," began Grover, "It's kind of complicated, but the gist of it is that Zoro's family already knew about the gods and so his mother made sure that he, and later his friends, were prepared." This wasn't the whole story, Grover knew, but he wouldn't betray his friends secrets or the trust that they put into him.

Though a part of him couldn't help but wonder if they would ditch him now that they had such a large base of stronger, braver people to choose to be friends with (when they found out that he had thought that, they both slapped him on the back of the head. In tandem. It wasn't like Grover would ever stop being their friend).

Chiron still looked a little confused, but it was fading fast. Finally he shook it off enough to realize that he hadn't invited them in yet, so he promptly did.

"Follow me," he murmured slightly, "And please, don't be rude." He really didn't want any of them to be mentally institutionalized via Dionysus, or turned into dolphins.

They came to a table that had two hands of cards on it, one of them obviously belonging to Chiron, and the other belonging to a guy wearing a leopard print shirt, with a bit of a beer belly, a face like he'd just woken up from a night of partying and now had a terrible hangover, and hair that could either be a really dark purple color or a black that catches the light weird.

Zoro instantly knew that this guy was dangerous, regardless of the way he looked. The man reminded him of some of the people on the Grand Line, they look like they wouldn't be that powerful or good at fighting, but then it turns out that they can be so eccentric because they are good at fighting and can defeat high level opponents.

And you never find a powerful person without some odd eccentricity. It's just the way the universe works.

"So you're the brats my uncle said would be around soon." Ah, this guy was dangerous and liked to goad people. A truly terrible combination.

 **:This chapter wrote itself in several spots. I have absolutely no idea where the part with Hades came from. Sometimes characters just start writing themselves. And Sally does know who Zoro's father is, I just haven't written her figuring it out because it's still a secret.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Again, this is based off of works created by Rick Riordan and Oda Eiichiro. Citations in MLA are on the first chapter.**

 **Sorry that it took as long as it did, my WIFI is down.**

 **So, in this Dionysus is a pretty decent person. Yeah, well, he seemed like he at least cared but didn't want to show it in the books. And I believe that him and Zoro would get along. I could totally see pirate Dionysus happening.**

Chapter 6

Dionysus was trapped, and he didn't like it one bit. Especially since it was his own Father that had trapped him, and for trumped up(What did he do wrong?) charges as well. Zeus had either told no-one on Olympus that the nymph was off limits, or had decided it on the spot. And then, when all Dionysus did was throw a party that the same nymph had just happened to show up at (along with half of Olympus) Zeus had decided it was two strikes and 'grounded' him.

By forcing him to watch over a bunch of children, like the guy had been trying to get some decently powerful and 'respectable' god(he had turned down several minor and/or underworld gods that had offered) to do for a while at that point. There was a reason he had turned the position down when Zeus had first asked him to.

A god of alcohol, parties, and madness was not someone that should be near children for any length of time.

And now all of these children, who he was bound to protect(They were HIS), were treating him far differently than they had when he first started as the director. With not quite the same fear/reverence/honor as they did for the others, but with more respect and a sort of nonchalance that reminded him of ages past when he was a wanderer and taught people how to grow vined plants and make wine. When he held parties that were gatherings of everyone, regardless of social or economic divide, that no-one cared who the person next to them was, they just had a good time.

It was all terribly nostalgic(He loved it).

Not that he let anyone know of his feelings, or that anyone other than Chiron could tell. If Zeus knew…. Well. It could be pretty bad. Because Dionysus was sure that he hadn't been put in charge of the camp just for the protection of the children. He didn't know why, but Zeus would never go as far as he did just to protect a bunch of short-lived brats that a.)weren't his and b.) he hated on principal for what they represented.

The worst part of the 'punishment' though, was not getting alcohol. And not for the reasons that a mortal would think. He could feel the lack of using that admittedly large piece of his very nature wearing on him. Putting him off a part of his game. He needed wine, making and consuming, the way that Zeus needed to make storms, or that Apollo needed to make music. And the lack…, would probably make him go crazy well before his punishment was over. He had seen it happen to other gods as well, it was only a matter of time.

And the worst part was, Zeus knew it too, had seen it before as well. His own father wanted him to go crazy, and probably around a bunch of helpless children that trusted him to not hurt them because they were suicidally brave idiots.

People thought he was stupid. That the only thing Dionysus knew were parties and alcohol. They forgot, then, that he was a god of mental states, that he could control insanity, give it or take it away. He knew the mind like the back of his hand, and could twist it and mess with it, even without using his godly powers. He knew how people acted, and knew how to get others to react how he wanted, it was why Aunt Hestia had given up her seat to him so readily. She hated politics, and had simply asked that if she wished Dionysus would help her in Olympus using his position.

His animal was a leopard after all. A large predatory cat. Dionysus would never understand why people insisted on seeing one facet of him when there was such a large proof to the contrary. Godly symbols were meant to represent a big part of the god that used them. Idiots.

He also liked to test people, by seeing if they could see the truth, seeing how they would react to an annoying arrogant jerk that they knew had enough power to destroy them. First impressions count for a lot to him.

So when this group that he can tell are powerful demigods (one his uncle's son and the other the kid of his… well the closest he'd gotten to a friend that could see the true him) walks into the room he antagonizes them. Oddly, uncle's kid is calm and tolerant in the face of it, seemingly overlooking the words and the tone.

The oddly green-haired kid(He's got to have something weird in his ancestry for that hair, his father didn't have it and mortal hair isn't naturally that color) seemed to know that he was a lot more dangerous than he looked, had seemed to realize that Dionysus was a leopard underneath his rude drunk exterior. It was nice to have someone recognize that right away, especially when most of the gods hadn't even noticed for millennia.

Not to mention, the satyr they had with them. The guy seemed to have grown a backbone and a bit of confidence since the Director had last seen him. And was carrying a different instrument.

Which was good, in all honesty. He approved. Dionysus didn't like how many of the current batch of satyrs behaved to the ones that didn't quite fit the mold. Gleeson, Grover, Klavier they all had been mocked for their differences.

He got a feeling that these particular demigods might end up turning the camp on its head. It could only be a good thing. Hopefully he stayed sane long enough to see it happen.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

Zoro was… suspicious, for lack of a better word. Here was a powerful being, with powers in direct contradiction for childcare, taking care of a group of them even though he clearly didn't want to. After that first remark, the guy had remained flippant and disgruntledly bored for the rest of a rather frustrating explanation of the Camp.

And then Chiron leaned down and explained why Dionysus was there. It was probably the only thing that he could do to warn Campers, you could see it in the old Centaur's eyes. He was probably friends with Dionysus, Mr. D, and wished that he could do something to help.

Because when a Being's(Most often an immortal) self was tied into certain actions or objects, those same things became tied into the relative sanity and health of that being. Ririko had once told Zoro the story of a vampire that had been trapped and purposely starved without dusting them. Vampires were immortal, but without food they went utterly insane and lost all rational thought. And for a species that prided themselves on logic and manipulation of others it was a truly horrifying ending.

"What's the exact wording of what Zeus told you when he 'grounded' you?" Zoro said after hearing the story.

Because if Zoro was correct, then he had a probable solution. It was how he got around his Mom's stipulation of no drinking alcohol until he was fifteen.

Dionysus studied Zoro with carefully blank eyes, before saying in a very flat, very carefully neutral tone of voice, "That I would not drink anything with alcohol in it, nor would I be able to make any lest I be tempted to consume it."

Zoro nodded thoughtfully, before reaching into his backpack for a plastic container. He handed the box to Dionysus with a smirk.

"A gift of goodwill, to our new Camp Director. If you like the recipe, I don't mind making more for you."

When Mr. D opened the container and got a whiff of the scent, his smirk mirrored Zoro's, with just a hint of relief lurking underneath the eyes. Inside were several innocuous seeming cakes. What made Zoro and Dionysus happy with them was the fact that the cakes were rum cakes. As in cooked with alcohol, and then soaked in rum after cooking.

It neatly got around the drinking aspect of the rules and restrictions, and the best part was that Zeus wouldn't be able to tell what they were unless they flat out said the name. And then they could argue that the alcohol had been 'cooked out'. Now to find a good excuse for wine ice cream…

"Why would you give this to me," came a voice that was edged in curiosity and vicious cunning. Oh, he'd been right, this god was very dangerous, regardless of how most people saw him.

"Well, you could call it a sympathy cake. My mother has denied me alcohol until I turn fifteen in much the same way that you have been, I tend to eat that afterwards so as to feel better."

"Do you know how to play Pinochle?"

The smirk on Zoro's face widened, "One of my German Aunts taught me and Percy the game when we were children, I assume Chiron is your partner of choice?" At Mr. D's nod there was only one thing to do.

They both turned to their Pinochle playing buddies in tandem, freaking Grover out so much that he whimpered and began hyperventilating on the chair he'd stumbled back into.

Yeah, neither Percy nor Chiron stood a chance against the Pirate Dionysus duo, for whom alcohol and certain card games(generally of the gambling persuasion) were facts of life.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

'Well, at least Zoro finally found the perfect drinking buddy,' Percy thought idly as Mr. D and Zoro began sharing ways to get around prohibition. It was funny, if one ignored the terrifying thought that Zoro, bloodthirsty, challenge-seeking swordsman that he was, now had a god of madness, alcohol, and partying on speed-dial.

Percy and Chiron gave each other commiserating looks as only those whose best friends were as ridiculous as theirs could. Seriously, this was his life now. He was sharing looks with Chiron that said they were the only sane, rational ones left in a universe gone mad.

Though, if Chiron was Percy, and Dionysus was Zoro, then who was the Grover? Percy honestly wanted to meet the immortal version of Grover. Though he hoped that the satyr got over his mini panic attack soon. Honestly, it wasn't as if Zoro and Dionysus weren't going to become friends at first sight.

And so they spent several hours playing before Chiron stood up and announced that they should all go to bed even through all the complaints. Especially the mortals that had to sleep.

"Since it is so late," Chiron told them, "You may sleep here for the night. Though I would like a report as to how you already knew of the gods sometime tomorrow, please." Somehow he managed to say it as a command instead of a request.

They all managed to get a decent night's rest. It would be the last many of them would sleep peacefully for a while.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!**!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

The next morning after everyone had woken up, Chiron began herding the three teenagers outside for breakfast. Of course, the entire camp gave them extremely shocked looks when they just randomly randomly showed up in the morning. Most of the time, monster attacks right at the edge of camp were the norm unless the demigods were extremely weak.

"This is Zoro Okubo and Percy Jackson," Chiron said, "They arrived last night, and because of the late hour I had them sleep in the Big House to be introduced in the morning."

"Are they determined," shouted a random Ares camper.

"They are not," at the general groan the full Hermes table gave(mostly because there was literally no room, especially for two people), Chiron gave a small sigh before sitting down.

At the centaur's announcement, Zoro swept his eyes over the congregated halfbloods to categorize threats, Percy gave a half wave, and Grover sunk down lower into his seat. Though that could be because he was embarrassed at having to sit at the table in the front.

What no one, not even Chiron, realized was that many of the campers used the monsters following a person back as a measure of how powerful that person was. Since no monsters had seemed to follow them, even though there were two demigods, most of the campers dismissed them as weak.

Clarisse LaRue was one of the few that didn't outright dismiss the newbies. She recognized people who had good training with a blade, and unlike many could practically feel the bloodlust and determination to fight and win coming off the green haired demigod. It was one of the things she had inherited from her father, and if she didn't know any better she'd swear that Zoro was one of her siblings.

It was at that moment Clarisse decided that instead of the usual initiation, She'd challenge them to a fight. Though, she would probably need at least one other person to help her if she was reading the newbies right.

'Maybe Luke would like to help,' she thought, 'Hermes campers are really good at reading people.'

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

This was… well it wasn't good. Or bad really. But Percy knew that Zoro at least was going to end up totally dismissing the vast majority of the campers. If he was being honest with himself, then Percy knew that he probably would end up doing the same. The campers had seemed to categorize them all as extremely weak, with very few exceptions.

While it would be fun proving to them how wrong they were, it would also quickly prove annoying. And he would end up having to do a lot of damage control on his best friend.

Or maybe not, if they annoyed him a lot as well. Of course, if they managed to do that then they deserved it. Percy, while not having the sheer brute strength and terrifyingness of Zoro or the creative intelligence of Grover, was very good at being utterly unexpected. Coming at someone from an angle they'd never think of, and then destroying them is what he excelled at.

And being dismissed when you actually were really good at what you could do was irritating.

It was just after breakfast, and having to throw some food in a random fire for the greek gods(for Dionysus, Percy and Zoro had decided together), when Chiron got the attention of the campers.

"I would like to ask for some volunteers to show Percy and Zoro around the camp, and get them set up in cabin eleven," Chiron told the campers. The response was a blank sort of silence before Clarisse, of all people, stood up.

With a rather vicious sneer she said, "I'll show these newbies around camp." At her proclamation, many campers winced in sympathy, believing that the daughter of Ares would initiate(read: swirly and beat up) the new campers right away.

When Zoro got up and stretched, showing off the three swords that most of the campers previously hadn't seen, and gave Clarisse and answering violent grin, and Percy just looked amused and calm as he got up after Zoro, many of the campers turned to Grover for an answer. Only to get a shock as the Satyr looked more worried for Clarisse than for the people he guided to camp.

As Clarisse stomped off with the new campers following behind her, her arm swung out to the Hermes table and she grabbed a hold of Luke's arm before dragging him with to the confusion of everyone else. This would lead to three cabins becoming supporters of the new demigods, and rallying behind them in the face of the rest of the camp.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

After Showing Percy and Zoro, with Grover following behind in a worried manner, the bare minimum of the camp, Clarisse practically shoved them into the sparring ring while dragging Luke with. Several of the Hermes campers had shown up to make sure their leader was okay, or maybe just to take embarrassing photos, the Ares cabin was around to watch what they assumed would be a bloody fight, and the Hephaestus cabin had followed to see if they could get a look at those magnificent swords they'd seen(though one of them was fascinated with the unconventional musical weaponry Grover had).

What happened next was considered by many to be one of the most awesome fights witnessed in years among the campers. It was quick paced, it was masterful, and above all it proved that Zoro was on an entirely different level. Because while Percy was very good, Luke and Clarisse(The two best fighters in the camp that also had a high level of fighting experience) were about equal combatants with him, but Zoro was far better. They knew that he was holding back, even though it might be difficult for a novice to tell, and that he controlled the fight.

Halfway through he even began giving instructions to help everyone better their form, having decided that Luke and Clarisse were acceptable(he liked their attitudes). It was good instruction, and shored up holes and bad habits that they had gained over time.

Percy just seemed happy to make new friends(His idea of friendship had forever been tainted by his very first friend. Fighting together, going through hell-training, and sparring were all activities he took to mean friendship.).

Sadly, for anyone not a member of the Ares, Hermes, or Hephaestus cabins(All three of which were the only ones to show up, everyone else just opting to ignore it with fervor because of Clarisse), they missed the fight. Most still dismissed the new campers, and would one day be terrified because of it.

Not because of Zoro or Percy, but Grover turned out to have a mildly murderous backbone in response to anyone insulting his friends(He also turned out to have a terrifying mind).

 **:Another chapter, another hint about the father. And the green hair mystery. Also, while I have some positive ideas for where to send the other Straw Hats, for some I just don't know. I really like what I have planned for Nami, Franky, and Robin.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Again, this is based off of works created by Rick Riordan and Oda Eiichiro. Citations in MLA are on the first chapter.**

 **So,** **I just can't portray most of the campers. That was one of the main reasons this took so long, actually. Sadly Grover isn't in this chapter as much. People interacting in groups isn't my strong point.**

 **Oh, and I have a poll. I finally figured out how to do it, so go to my account/profile/whatever-it-is and vote on all the universes that characters will be going to.**

Chapter 7

It was a Friday at Camp Halfblood, and that meant Capture the Flag. Normally, the Hermes cabin would have teamed up with the Athena cabin, but Luke had a newfound respect for Clarisse and his two newest cabin members, even though they had only been around for a few days.

Annabeth had overlooked Zoro and Percy, and didn't really get along with Clarisse. Which was fine, except he knew she was smarter than that. He also didn't want her getting caught up in the beatdown that was going to happen sooner or later, mostly because she was like his little sister and he didn't want her to be hurt.

And so, because of the fact that Hermes really wanted the flag(and wanted to keep Zoro away from fighting in an environment less like a spar against the Ares kids, the idea of which was a terrifying prospect), they had decided to team up with Ares this time around. The Hephaestus and Dionysus kids were really the only other ones on their side, the Athena cabin taking offense at the Ares and Hermes cabin teaming up and getting everyone else on their side by hook or by crook.

But Luke was fairly certain that whoever was on Zoro's side would end up winning regardless of any other circumstance the camp could create. The guy was just that good. He held more experience than anyone that Luke had ever seen besides Chiron, and held back in his every fight with them. He always kept himself one step ahead of their level, coaching them to be better to try and best him, in the short time Zoro had been here Luke and Clarisse(because for some reason Zoro seemed to take them on as some sort of apprentice Percy had explained) had jumped ahead in their skill level by a truly astonishing amount.

Which was why he knew that before he made any other move he'd have to see where Zoro stood, no matter how angry Kronos got at him. No matter, it wasn't like the Titan was in his mind, the most he could do was send him the occasional dream. And Luke had checked, because he wouldn't be a very good thief if he didn't have a good way out.

Okay, and maybe stealing the Master Bolt and the Helm had been a little reckless, and maybe Titans were just as bad as gods, but he wanted change. He wanted the gods to feel as helpless as he did. Perhaps that made him a bad person.

Perhaps simply a flawed one.

All that Luke Castellan had ever wanted was a family, friends that would stand by him, and instead all that he had gotten was people leaving him. Oh, he didn't blame Thalia, but Annabeth barely talked to him anymore and disliked people for very little reason or because her mother had a grudge against their parents. He was the authority of his cabin, so few had actually became his friend even loosely, his mother cared more for stupid unimportant things than her own son, and his dad had abandoned him with a crazy facade of a mother.

Kronos, he knew, was not the answer. Neither were the gods. But before, inciting a change by opening a few eyes was the best he could do. Now, though, there were a few new players in the game.

The question was, however, if Zoro Okubo and Percy Jackson would play for keeps, and if they would want him if he helped.

Deep in the pits of Tartarus, the King Titan took note of the new players and the fact that his greatest pawn seemed reluctant to go against them, before commanding one of the others to test them during the war game the children played.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

The strategy meeting for the Ares team was going oddly. Normally only the lead cabin and maybe the other cabin leaders would be a part of it, but Zoro had told everyone to meet in the basement of the big house, which Clarisse hadn't even taken offense to. When asked why, he'd told them that making a strategy where invisible spies couldn't go was a smart idea. All of the campers looked contemplative before Zoro mentioned that they could only do this because Castor and Pollux's dad was allowing it.

When everyone who wasn't Percy or Zoro looked at the twins contemplatively they merely smiled and said in creepy unison, "A lot of people underestimate us because of Dad, but they forget parts of his domain."

"That is pretty cool," Conner told them.

"Would you be able to teach us how to do that," Travis wondered.

"Why haven't we ever teamed up with you before, I mean double the twins double the awesome, Right?"

So the Stoll brothers turned to the only two Dionysus campers with a mischievous grin, and the rest of the room felt the dread go up their spine when they were answered with an entirely too creepy grin.

"Why are we here anyway," Lou Ellen, determined of Hecate, asked, "I mean doesn't the lead cabin usually decide the plan? And, aren't satyrs normally neutral?" Everyone turned to look at Grover, who bleated nervously at the attention.

"Grover is here because we trust him, and he's pretty smart. Plus, none of you guys really know each other's strength and weaknesses anyways," Percy told them, " I've been told that Annabeth is very good at strategy, and we wouldn't know the best places to put everyone to beat her if she is. They outnumber us, so we have to think outside of the box to beat them."

"Hephaestus cabin can build anything that's necessary," Beckendorf offered, "As well as repair anything broken."

"Not just what a cabin's good at," Zoro cut in, "What each person is good at, the weapon they specialize in, what type of terrain they know the best, skills. We need to know what everyone can do to make sure that we win."

Luke nodded, "That's a good idea, there are a lot of kids in the Hermes cabin that aren't children of Hermes. They don't have the same strengths and weaknesses as us, but generally we are all put into one group."

Percy smiled at the gathered room before saying, "How about we separate the already determined into their own categories, and then have the undetermined tell us what they're good at by themselves." He then started passing out some paper to each group, making sure that the leader had paper and a pen.

"Alright, listen up," Carisse barked out, causing half the room to jump, "Everyone will write the names and skills of all the people in their group down, afterwards we will present them and figure out a plan to crush that know-it-all once and for all."

"Don't be mean to Annabeth," Luke admonished, "She's not that bad."

"Well, how did you know exactly who I meant, then?"

"Guys," Percy said, "Let's just get started."

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

In the end, they turned out to have a pretty diverse skill-set. There were more close combat specialists than anything else, but that was to be expected. And, while the plan wasn't some masterful moving of chess pieces that some tacticians enjoyed, it put the right people in the right spots for their skill.

No one fought alone, but instead had at least one other person watching their backs. Anyone who had a skill lent to trapping(such as certain members of the Hephaestus and Hermes cabins) were to turn the forest into the proverbial minefield. Distractions would ensue, via the recently teamed up twin group, the heavy hitters would charge in and engage the enemy, and a thief would steal the flag while everyone was distracted.

It had a decent chance of working because the usual tactics of the Ares cabin were to fight their way to the flag through brute force, and there was no reason for anyone to assume they would do otherwise. Of course, to keep the other side from being able to react properly they had to find Annabeth and take her prisoner.

It had somewhat surprised everyone except for Percy that Zoro could find anyone within a certain range even though he got lost ridiculously easily, which he had promised covered the entire forest, so he was to neutralize the enemy captain.

And so the game was on.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

Annabeth heard the sound of fighting begin in the forest behind her. That was to be expected, what with her enemy for the night being the Ares cabin. They were fairly predictable that way.

It was odd that Luke had decided to team up with them, normally he sided with her.

Though, she had taken into account the skill that the Hermes cabin had at… liberating things. It made it a bit harder to ensure the safety of her flag, but Annabeth was certain that she could take the Ares flag before they got to hers.

Knowing Clarisse, she probably put a couple strong fighters on the flag, to defeat anyone who came near.

Still, they wouldn't be able to see her, so by the time they realized she was taking their flag it would be too late. Normally she would give this job to someone else, but the alliances had shifted quickly. Yes, Annabeth had the advantage in numbers, but with Hermes cabin on the other side it was not a sure victory.

Luke was very smart, and knew her better than just about anyone. If someone would be able to figure out what she was doing it was him. Of course, invisibility would help, but demigods had pretty good instincts.

She had to hurry, then. The longer this went on, the more likely that something would happen to tip it in the favor of one side or the other.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

Annabeth froze, hearing the sound of footsteps. If she stayed silent, then whoever it was would undoubtedly just walk away. Most people ignored what they couldn't see with their own eyes, and most people forgot about her hat.

Looking around she tried to figure out who it was, before pausing. That new kid with the green hair, Zoro she believed his name was, had out several swords as he walked through the forest seemingly looking for something.

'He seems to at least know what he's doing… maybe he's the child of some minor war god? That would fit, maybe there's one with green hair, I'll research it later…' before she froze up even more as he started getting closer to her.

As he passed by, she mentally let go of the breath that she was holding. Her relaxation only lasted a moment before the pommel of a blade lashed out at her head before she could react. Annabeth's last thought before the blackness overtook her was the hope that the secondary team to acquire the flag would succeed.

Athena always has a plan, and Annabeth wasn't so arrogant as to make one without a backup.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

Zoro grumbled slightly as he shouldered the younger blond girl and stuck her hat into his pocket. Yes, he was probably the best person for this particular job, but that didn't mean that he didn't want to fight. At least, if he dropped her off to be imprisoned for the duration of the game quickly he might be able to fight some before it ended.

Though, it was odd that he could find anyone, haki or no haki. It was helpful finding people when the world started moving around, but he wasn't quite sure why he could find people without haki. It was different, almost like he was recognizing some part of them that wasn't usually seen.

Everyone had a unique… Tint… to their aura, and for some reason it even told him their full name. Weird, but it didn't seem to be harmful so Zoro had ignored it. Zoro ignored the reason behind a lot of new things pertaining to himself so long as they worked and didn't get in the way of his dream.

"You got her," came the gruff but friendly voice of Beckendorf, "That's good. She probably had a backup plan, but they're never really as good at getting the flag as her first plan is."

Zoro nodded at Beckendorf before turning and walking back the way he came.

"Hey," yelled out one of the Hermes campers that had been set as a guard for prisoners, "Where are you going?"

"To fight," Zoro grumbled out, obviously already annoyed at not being in the midst of it.

Zoro wouldn't get to fight the campers as he wanted, the game ending before he could.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

A trio of campers ran across the ground, the blue team not realizing until it was too late that the group had their flag. Some of the blue team tried to stop them, but were quickly dispatched by either Percy's sword, or Lou Ellen's magic. Luke, who was easily one of the best thieves in the camp, had the flag. Just as he got it to cross the boundary and ripple into his cabin's emblem, Zoro came out of the forest grumbling.

"You caught her, then," Luke yelled out to the guy that even though he was a little younger than him just seemed older.

"Yeah, she was nearly at the flag when I caught her," Zoro said, still looking disappointed at the lack of fighting before he eyed Luke a bit, "Let's spar."

"After dinner," Luke said easily, "Or maybe a melee tomorrow instead? Then you could fight everyone at the same time, give us all a chance to make you work harder for your victory than normal."

"Fine," he said with an almost proud look before walking off towards Clarisse(presumably to see if she wanted to fight with him in a more immediate way).

"Good job on the Zoro wrangling," Percy told him with amusement.

"Eh, He's similar enough to Clarisse when it comes to fighting," Luke said with resignation, "And being the only person in camp that can truly challenge her in a straight up fight, I got to be her regular sparring partner. Under duress. Well, at least before you guys came, now she has other targets."

"We can easily convince them to amuse each other," Percy mused, "If we want a little free time that has no relation to fighting…. Or stealing," Percy hastily added seeing his new friends look. Okay, yeah, he definitely must have inherited a truly mind-boggling amount of sanity from his mom. Everyone related to the gods seemed to have some kind of crazy except for him(Percy did to, but his was mostly water related and wouldn't be found out until later).

"Are you sure he isn't the kid of some war god?" Luke asked a short while later when watching Clarisse and Zoro go head to head in a 'friendly' manner.

"Clarisse said he wasn't one of her siblings," Percy said slowly, "And while Zoro loves fighting, I think he gets a lot of that from his mom."

"Who do you think it might be, then," Luke asked with curiosity, after all, while both boys were undetermined Luke was positive that Percy's father was a god relating to water, and from his power it was fairly obvious that there was only one real candidate. But Zoro was an enigma, no one could get a proper read on him. But maybe his best friend would have some insight(Luke really wanted to win the betting pool, which only lasted until someone was claimed).

"It's not a war god, I don't think. Something that would help you be able to find people, to intuitively grasp what he does, even make people instinctively fear or ignore you. To be honest it sounds kind of like…" just then Percy was interrupted by the blowing of a horn, which caused everyone to pause, and then a loud growling roar, which caused everyone to get on guard.

"Heroes, To me!" Chiron shouted as he peered into the woods looking almost afraid, not for himself but for his students(He was limited as to what aid he could give unless one of them were in mortal danger, and by the time they were it was almost always too late).

"I don't like the sound of that beastie," Beckendorf mumbled in his low bass, "do you know what it is?"

"Pray that no one has set this monster upon the camp," Chiron told him gravely, "And that I am wrong."

Just then, from out of the woods came a creature far stronger than most of the monsters the demigods had fought. The Named One(as the Okubo clan put it) known simply as the Nemean Lion. Fur impervious to all bladed attacks, insanely strong and fast, claws ably to slice through metal like a knife through warm butter, quick healing, its weak spots were hard to reach or took literally Herculean level strength to exploit.

To be honest, only three people in the camp would be able to take it down in an honest fight, and two of those were bound not to interfere. Zoro was the only other one, and when the creature raced out of the woods he was too far away to reach the Lion's first intentional victim before it did.

Percy was good, but with his weapon being ineffective, not having the time to figure out a way to defeat it, and the Lion having the advantage of environment, it sliced through his torso, only not killing him because he'd managed to redirect the claws enough with his sword(Riptide was mad that someone was doing this to his wielder when he was powerless to help).

Then Zoro reached the monster. Proving the insane amount of skill, the shear level he was on as compared to the others his sword(turning black for a single moment) sliced straight through the lion's neck with a bright ringing sound. The fur was not that much tougher than sea stone, Zoro decided, before the monster turned into dust, leaving behind only the pelt.

A sobbing noise came from behind him, but he wasn't sure who it belonged to. But Zoro did look at his friend, his student, and felt a growl welling up in his throat. He wished he could kill that lion again, because Percy was dying and he could do nothing to stop it. If he'd have trained the kid harder, been closer, but no. And now whoever had caused this was going to pay(At the back of the crowd, a black-haired kid with somewhat asian features jerked back as though hit and then stared at Zoro in awe).

Percy was lying on the ground, chest practically torn entirely open, and Zoro knew he was going to die. Knew it with the same certainty and rightness he got when he swung his swords, and that scared him a little because he didn't used to be able to do that, know that, not the way he did now.

His best friend in the entire world, one of the few he'd truly taken on as a student of the blade and not simply helped learn how to fight was going to die. Unless…

A voice whispered gently to put Percy in the water, that the water would save him. And Zoro knew that voice did not come from him, but he trusted it like an old companion. And the presence laughed, and left with the impression that they would be speaking soon.

Zoro scooped Percy up, unheeding of the people that attempted to stop him, and put him in the water. And the wounds began to rapidly heal. Chiron paled, knowing that so obvious a sign could mean grave and terrible things, especially for the child.

And Percy sat up with a gasp, looking around wildly until he felt Zoro's comforting, insanely strong presence and relaxed before standing up.

That, of course, was when almost everyone looked at the two with awe and not a little bit of fear, and when Percy looked confused(Because he was standing just in front of Zoro as well as being shorter) and it was Luke who mutely gestured above his head, looking vaguely contemplative(as well as having quite a bit growing loyalty and camaraderie to the point where he was trying to figure out how to make Kronos, and he knew it was Kronos who'd done this, pay).

And Percy looked up to see the faded image of a trident above his own head, and the image of an inverted torch wreathed with poppies above Zoro's.

"Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God, The Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Zoro Okubo, Son of the God of Death, Lieutenant of Hades, Reaper of Souls," said Chiron gravely as everyone slowly bowed.

 **:So, in case you don't realize, Thanatos is Zoro's father. Don't worry, it will all be explained in the next chapter. The part about revealing his heritage was actually a lot of fun. Getting reviews that will undoubtedly be mad will be even more fun. Thanatos is... fun.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Again, this is based off of works created by Rick Riordan and Oda Eiichiro. Citations in MLA are on the first chapter.**

 **So,** **I just can't portray most of the campers. That was one of the main reasons this took so long, actually. Sadly Grover isn't in this chapter as much. People interacting in groups isn't my strong point, but hopefully this will help me get over that.**

 **I know what I want to do in general, but figuring out how to get to my planned ending is a lot like banging my head up against the wall. I hope that you enjoy this...**

Chapter 8

Beyond Percy gaining a different sleeping spot from Zoro, their friendship and the friendships they had cultivated since they had arrived hadn't really changed all that much(Zoro did become a bit more overprotective, but it was hard for other people to tell that he was basically stalking his best friend with haki when no one else had haki). Oh, the average camper treated them differently, just not the people who really knew them(Not well, perhaps, but anyone who'd interacted with Percy for more than five minutes knew that he was a good friend to have, and anyone who'd seen Zoro with his 'students' knew that he was not compelled to kill people. But campers had prejudices as to what a son of Death should be like). Basically it was the same as middle school, except in that wretched and miserable place only Grover bothered to be friends with the weird kids who liked swords.

Most of the campers were alternating from terrified(because Percy's dad was one of the 'Big Three' and Zoro's was literally Death) to collectively trying to cozy up to powerful demigods they had previously dismissed. Which did not go well for them at all because Zoro was straightforward and liked who he liked(Something that him and his Captain had both shared), while Percy hated it when people only liked or disliked others based on something they couldn't help such as parentage.

Generally all Zoro had to do to get the more 'friendly' group away was to give them a demonic glower which honestly felt(to most people, those who actually knew the god of the Underworld would know better. Hades felt very different from Zoro) like Hades was nearby, but Percy was such a nice guy(and considered pretty good looking by the ladies… who were admittedly twelve year old Aphrodite campers), and not a direct relation to the scary Underworld so he got the brunt of the mindless sycophant storm.

Of course the Ares, Hephaestus, and Hermes cabin liked them well enough, and while Clarisse, Luke, and Grover were all good friends with them and each other by that point(there are only so many times you can be beat into the ground by Zoro together in the name of training and not become friends), there were a few people outside of that that had often been found nearby that the group collectively claimed as friends and shanghaied to put more bodies between Zoro and boredom now that he could no longer go out and hunt monsters whenever he felt like it. Both of those people cursed their curiosity after the first 'spar'.

The first was a son of Nemesis, Ethan Nakamura, who followed Zoro around(The sheer blood thirst and focus on revenge against whoever had sent that lion after Percy, well. Ethan honestly couldn't stay away, especially not after his mother had told him that the guy would help him on his crusade. Nemesis did care about her children, even if she showed it in a weird way) and had outright declared himself to be the guys subordinate before harassing anyone trying to bother him(Apparently, Nemesis was Thanatos' sister, and Ethan decided that Zoro would be an awesome enough cousin to actually claim the relation unlike most campers to those outside of their half siblings. Mostly because Zoro didn't judge him based on the fact that his mom was the goddess of Revenge and Balance and because him and Percy were causing changes to a stagnated world). The guy had happily entrenched himself in their group(after surviving the first round of Zoro training), stating something about their general lack of long ranged fighters and needing to have a better balanced team.

Upon Luke pointing out that Ethan fought with daggers, the dark haired kid had merely smiled sharply and smoothly pulled out a revolver looking gun that he casually used to hit one of the archery targets. That was behind him and he couldn't even see at the time. No one questioned him after that(though Percy bonded with him through guns. Hey, even if he loved swords that didn't mean that his mom hadn't taught him his way around a rifle, after all he was a momma's boy).

On the other side of the fence was Annabeth Chase, who'd followed them suspiciously and refused to admit that she was a part of their group. Eventually, they had stopped asking politely, and had Clarisse drag her into the practice ring any time she skulked about until she just started showing up ready to fight and became friends with all of them. Of course she'd deny even liking any of them other than Luke or Grover, but Annabeth had slowly become something similar to a friend.

She disagreed with them a lot, and seemed determined to best Zoro, Clarisse, or Percy in a duel(she wasn't that picky, and didn't really care too much about Ethan beyond the fact that he was good enough with daggers to give her a good challenge), but that had just made Zoro decide she was a true friend. And Percy had looked at her and known that there was something… different… about her compared to most other demigods.

"She kind of feels like your family," Percy confided to Zoro, "It's so interesting."

Zoro nodded slowly, wondering if his friend had always had such good instincts, "Her family is probably similar to mine, attracts a lot of godly interest and ends up with a lot of godly blood in their veins, we should probably check in on the rest of the Chases sometime. Not all of those families are as lucky as the Okubo."

So life went on like that for a little while more, but storm clouds were on the horizon, drawing near.

And they'd all need to work very hard to placate a power hungry idiot.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

A crack of lightning flashed across the sky closely followed by the almost menacing roll of thunder. Most of the campers were looking up at the sky with nervous anticipation, feeling the tension the thick bank of clouds seemed to exude. To the smart ones, they'd realize that Zeus was angry.

And that was why, when Percy was called to the Big House all of his friends went with him(Even Annabeth, though she'd deny being friends with any of them, or that she was worried, she just wants to be certain that nothing will ruin any plans that she has. Oddly enough, if her and Clarisse could stop attempting to murder each other for about a minute they'd be best friends. They were extremely similar in some respects).

Chiron looked at them all gravely(he was smart enough to know that he couldn't separate them. And he was secretly grateful for that) as he ushered them inside. Mr. D was grimacing into his Coke.

"Percy," Chiron said gently, "There is something that I must tell you."

"Oh, quit beating around the bush, old friend," Mr. D mutters before looking up at them, "My Old Man in the Sky believes that Barnacle Beard has stolen his lightning bolt, via his son, and has demanded it back. Barnacle Beard denies that he stole it, and has demanded an apology. Naturally, they have only given each other until the Solstice to meet these demands until they go to war. Which is in about ten days from now."

Chiron pinched the bridge of his nose before sighing at the deer-in-the-headlights look most of the campers had adopted(except Zoro), "Yes, thank you Mr. D. I was trying to ease them into it."

"Why tell us now?" Percy asked.

Chiron sighed, before looking at the gathered group. From a scowling Clarisse, and a stormy nervous Annabeth and the happy looking Ethan(because this was going to help keep the balance, and his mother had left him with the near-compulsion of working towards balance as a demigod quirk along with smelling when a person wanted revenge against another. It smelled a lot like cumin, weirdly enough.), to an oddly guilty looking Luke and a miserable Grover and a thoughtful, worried Percy. And Zoro, standing there seeming both confident and intent.

"Because, as it is now, we are headed for war," the old teacher rumbled, "And as it is neither of them will back down. With all the rest of the gods forced to choose sides and prepare for war the Lightning Bolt will not be found by them so that leaves Heroes."

"Us," Grover said incredulously(He did not see himself as hero material, and had been somewhat shocked when Chiron had called him a hero along with his friends).

"Indeed," came the reply, "besides, what better show of faith than to have the son of the accused find and return the Bolt."

"So you want Percy to go on this quest for sure," Luke said softly, seeming to think about something.

"What do you mean by 'for sure,' obviously we're all going," Percy replied confused.

Chiron nodded slowly, "Normally only three people are allowed to go on quests together, because any more than that and the heroes will draw far too many monsters to them."

"That's not good," Percy frowned worriedly.

"Ah, it'll be okay," Zoro said lazily, "We can just send out two separate groups close enough to help each other in case of trouble, but far enough away to not attract a lot of monsters."

"If we're on the same quest, then wouldn't we end up in the same places?" Ethan wondered, not necessarily condemning. Annabeth was looking at Zoro with mild shock, wondering how he'd thought up a solution before her, the Daughter of Athena and Tactician(plan person to be general).

"Not if we're after two separate things," Zoro smirked in smug satisfaction, "I had a fairly interesting dream last night…"

*FLASHBACK*

Zoro appeared in a somewhat dark, yet cozy and rustic room. Looking around, and wondering how he'd got there when he was still asleep(last he'd checked), a man appeared before him.

The guy had dark colored hair, dark gold eyes, dark clothes, dark… everything really. Not to mention a massive scythe held in one hand, and the large wings on his back, and of course being weirdly beautiful for a man. But Zoro immediately recognized who he was.

"Thanatos," Came Zoro's growl along with a narrowing of his eyes.

"Son," The Greek god of Death replied, looking at him with fondness(though most would be hard pressed to tell).

"Why am I here," Zoro wondered suspiciously, hand going to the swords by his side.

"You're my son, so I wanted to talk to you."

"Okay," Zoro said, "Did you hurt my mother?"

(Because Zoro had not forgotten his promise. If his father had hurt his mother in any way, he would find a way to kill him regardless of the consequences. End of story.)

Thanatos smiled at him, "Your mother is a very strong woman that I had liked from the moment I first saw her. Since my boss(meaning DEATH, but most people would probably mistake him for Hades considering the wording used) allowed me to father a demigod child, and she wanted to have a son without being beholden to some guy we decided to date for a little bit."

Zoro looked considering, before nodding, "Okay, yeah, that sounds like mom. So you wanted to talk to me?"

Thanatos sobered up fairly quickly, "Though I do not normally interfere, Hades is a good friend of mine and his children do not deserve what has happened to them. Since they and many others cannot die where they currently are at, it's also causing me a bit of a headache."

"You want me to rescue some children of Hades from where they're trapped?"

"And anyone else there, as well as destroy the place trapping them. Some of the mortals there may not be able to handle leaving, but even I am better that the torment this place inflicts."

"Torment?"

"They are trapped within their own minds, knowing that all they care for is probably dying or dead, and incapable of doing anything as their bodies go through the motions. Demigods handle it better, but I still doubt that most of them will survive."

"Yeah, okay, that sounds like a pretty good reason to go on a quest," Zoro said with malice at the thought of anyone taking another person's freedom away, "Anything else while I'm on the quest?"

Zoro's father just shrugged before tossing him an object, "You both get lost easily, and can find any person because you're my son, but sometimes being able to find a place or object is just as important," Thanatos grinned suddenly before saying, " I got the idea after an impressive pirate who honestly cheated me out of his life quite a few times died. This compass doesn't point to your heart's greatest desire like his did, but it does point to where you most need to go at the time."

"Thank you," Zoro muttered, looking at the compass with a soft smile(because it had the Straw Hat symbol embossed on the cover, meaning that his new father, even though he had lived a previous life, cared about and knew enough about him to give him a priceless gift that reminded him of his nakama).

"And Zoro," Thanatos said gently as the room started to fade, "I can contact you through your dreams whenever, so if you need any clarification then simply ask."

(Thanatos was both proud of the swordsman who was going to be great and had given up any peace in the afterlife to aid another, and happy he could help Hades with his problem. Not only were the children of Hades trapped, but something kept trying to make some poor demigods scapegoats. Knowing Zoro, the kid would definitely be able to help any he might… run into.)

*END FLASHBACK*

"So," Zoro said smugly, holding his new compass in his hand(which was pointed straight up for some weird reason... ), "We have another quest, and considering that most people probably suspect Hades of being the 'third party' even if he's not, and that he'd probably want his children nearby, we'll be near by each other the entire time. Probably."

Ethan looked at him with a somewhat deadpan expression mirrored by Annabeth(Because everyone else couldn't see what the issue was), "That doesn't stop there from being seven of us and not six."

"Six demigods though," Percy pointed out, "I don't think most monsters will get a read on Grover because he's a satyr, so while he'll bolster our numbers, he won't add to our scent. Which is why the three people only rule was created anyway."

Chiron nodded agreeably, with even Mr. D smirking in the background, "Yes, that works. Since Zoro and Percy have quests, they should both go up to the Oracle to get a prophecy for the quests."

Seeing both Percy and Zoro's confusion, Annabeth took pity on them before explaining, "Prophecies help demigods figure out where to start on their quests, while providing a warning of possible dangers. The Oracle is in the attic, and it will speak once you get up there."

"Okay," Percy said cheerfully, "Let's get this show on the road, the clock is ticking."

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

This of course ended with Zoro and Percy looking at a hippy mummy spewing green smoke and giving them both separate prophecies(somehow at the same time).

 _"You shall go west, and face the god who has turned,_

 _You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned,_

 _A choice shall be made, to protect or betray,_

 _And pain comes to friends that were led astray."_

 _"You shall find aid in the south, and subdue the horses of war,_

 _Fight fire with fire, unafraid of the four,_

 _Break from the stupor the caged to be free,_

 _And aid a father's redemption at sea."_

After the smoke all cleared, they looked at each other with twin expressions of contemplation.

Those prophecies weren't exactly pleasant sounding, and they had friends to tell. Hopefully it would end up alright.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

Clarisse knew that she had to go with Zoro as soon as she heard his prophecy. Because if she was right, that meant that either her father or one of her immortal half-brothers was going to be fighting them in the south.

"This is bad," She simply stated, causing everyone to look at her, "Four horses of war, fire, the south… that means that my father's chariot will be involved, and knowing him it's probably going to be in Dallas."

"Texas," Luke said, "You mean Dallas, Texas."

She looked at him with annoyance, "Of course Texas, do you know any other place named Dallas?"

"Why would the god of war be in Dallas," Percy murmured, before getting wacked by Annabeth.

"It might not be him," Clarisse said with a hint of… something in her eyes, "My father has a couple of sons that he lets take his chariot on joy rides sometimes, and as for why Dallas… the Dallas Burns use the horses of war as their logo."

"Really," Percy said interested, "And it doesn't do anything weird?"

"Not really, just means that my father really likes their team, but he doesn't really care much about sports. As violent as they can get they're not really war."

(Also, Ares never really got over the Olympics, which used sports to negate the necessity of war. This eventually evolved into a hatred of most sports, especially ones that were in the Olympics).

So it was concluded that Zoro would go to Texas, and Percy would end up in Los Angelos(on the basis that Hades would be the culprit or at least have a clue about who was framing him depending on who they asked. Opinions on the Underworld god were mixed, though they'd all be at least a little sympathetic by the end of the quest). They just had to figure out who to go with which person.

"Grover should go with Percy," Zoro grunted, "All signs point to me getting some extra help on my quest, so Percy should have his."

Clarisse nodded her approval, "Hedge was a big help to me going across the country, a satyr is a major bonus on any quest. And I should probably go with Zoro because I know a lot about the area and the enemies we might face. The gods of fear and terror can be a bit… overwhelming… if you're not expecting their tricks."

"Then I should go with Percy," Annabeth said, her grey eyes daring anyone to contradict her before adding, "My mortal family lives in the area, and I lived there for a while. I could navigate it pretty well."

Ethan smirked a little, as if he knew something they didn't(actually, he just wanted to make sure Clarisse and Luke had to interact more, so… ), "There's more to balance in the west, the south is just a necessary detour. To keep things fair, I've got to go with Percy."

"Well, I've heard that everything is bigger in Texas," Luke said contemplatively, "I wonder if that hold true to wallets."

And so, the teams were decided, with Team Zoro(consisting of Zoro, Clarisse, and Luke) heading south to Dallas, Texas before heading back up to L.A., and Team Percy(consisting of Percy, Grover, Annabeth, and Ethan) Going straight to L.A. to talk to Hades.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

"We won't even be able to help each other," Annabeth frowned, not liking how the original plan was basically broken, "We'll get to L.A way before you guys."

Luke laughed smugly, "Yeah, but I can both drive and hotwire cars. We'll get there before you because you wont have as sure transportation."

(He was the only one physically old enough to actually drive, at 17. Clarisse and Ethan were both 15, and Zoro looked old enough to be 15, even if he was actually 13)

"Oh really?" The daughter of Athena remarked to her annoying older brother figure, "Well then you'd better put your money where your mouth is. Obviously, we'd get there way before you."

"Fine, loser has to take over stable mucking duty for a month from the winner."

"Deal."

And so, the two groups of demigods were off, both to complete the quests that they had been given, and on a race against each other.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

 **:The Dallas Burns are a soccer/football team(depending on what you call it) that I decided to use after typing fire horses into Google and coming up with their logo. Actually, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe they decided to change their logo... just after the first Percy Jackson book originally came out. Which has the potential to be pretty funny in the story. Also, can anyone guess the demigod that will end up helping Team Zoro in Dallas?**


	9. Chapter 9

**Again, this is based off of works created by Rick Riordan and Oda Eiichiro. Citations in MLA are on the first chapter.**

 **Yeah, sorry about the long time. I was going to get this out way earlier, but then I got started on the Seven Deadly Sins. And then Black Clover. And then I read HunterxHunter. So, expect random works from those.**

 **Also, the poll will only be open till next chapter, so if you want to vote do it quick. Also, new rule(sorry), but if two characters get voted into the same universe, then the one with more votes gets to go to that universe, and the other I get to choose whatever I want. Never shall the One Piece characters meet, except when dead. Though, I could maybe be persuaded on crews such as the Whitebeard Pirates(Hint Hint, Wink Wink).**

 **And yes, some of you guessed the new character, congrats. I was going to mention some of the reviews that I got, but I am lazy and don't want to open another tab.**

Chapter 9

 **With Zoro**

It was actually getting kind of late. Team Zoro(or Team Meathead as Annabeth had decided to 'affectionately' nickname them) had split away from the rest as soon as they got into the city. Heading to one of the more well-off neighborhoods and then waiting for a definite jerk to park their car and leave hadn't even taken twenty minutes, and then Luke had broken into the car and hotwired it in a ridiculously short time. Then, once he'd driven it into some kind of 'blind spot', the guy had switched out the license plates and did… something… to the paint job.

"It'll work for getting us out of state," Luke had said, "And if we're lucky he won't notice his car's missing for several hours. And once we hit Maryland, so long as we don't do anything suspicious, this car should be good for the rest of the trip."

And so the extremely boring car ride started. Yeah, they had snacks, and they could talk to each other, but no monsters even tried to attack their vehicle. Not even when they were filling up on gass.

Luke was really feeling the strain, having to both drive as well as put up with the pouting and grumpiness from his friends. Zoro especially had been grumpy.

They had a long trip to go…

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 **Team Percy**

Taking a bus out of New York City to reach a train station (hopefully), Team Percy(or Team Brainiac as Clarisse had dubbed them) were having far worse luck on the monster front than Team Zoro.

Because of course their bus had to be followed by a group of giant death birds(or, as the vanilla mortals called them, vultures).

The screaming birds had already torn a hole off of the roof. Percy, being the closest to the front of the bus had taken control of the wheel from the now cowering driver and was now putting the pedal to the metal.

Ethan was probably having the most fun out of all of them by shooting the birds down, though that wasn't all that hard considering Annabeth didn't really have any long ranged techniques and Grover was more interested in using his saxophone to both slow the birds down and speed up the bus up(oddly enough, it sounded a lot like that old fashioned chase music found in movies…).

Eventually all of the birds either gave up or turned to dust, and they had reached the next bus stop.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

 **Team Zoro**

"Get some snacks while you're in there," Clarisse grumbled, "I want beef jerky."

"Any chance you could steal some booze before we leave, I'm in the mood," Zoro wondered.

'And,' Luke thought somewhat depressively, 'It might make them less volatile and angry, even if giving alcohol to teenagers is illegal.' (Luke was conveniently forgetting that he himself was a teenager, or that he'd be stealing the alcohol anyway. Being a son of Hermes made things such as laws seem much less confining than they did to other people).

Really, Luke was also very close to murdering them himself. Or murdering someone else, he wasn't picky. Not only had their journey so far, managing to hit Tennessee through judicious use of speeding, been lacking in any sort of monster or conflict, it had also pretty much been a car ride from… well, Hades.

Probably because of the aforementioned lack of monster attacks.

Honestly it was a bit weird how quiet all of the monsters were being. Maybe they were scared of the general bloodlust coming from the vehicle?

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

 **Team Percy**

Medusa? Really? Were they just that unlucky?

Yeah, Grover got to finally get closure on a member of his family, but she was a legendary monster, one of the named ones. It was not, needless to say, an easy fight.

It was pretty lucky that Grover could smell something wrong and that Ethan could tell that she wanted revenge upon Annabeth so that they weren't fooled by her for very long, but the way she treated Percy was downright creepy. Cutting her head off was almost a relief to the poor guy.

He decided to sacrifice it to Hades though, with a message requesting a meeting or at least passage to the Underworld once they got to LA, along with the assertion that the demigods believed he hadn't committed the crime.

Hopefully Team Zoro was having better luck in their quest.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

 **Team Zoro**

After nearly two days of almost nonstop driving, they were in Dallas, and Luke was very close to commiting murder. Most likely of his friends, though hopefully a monster would come along soon and volunteer as tribute. Or better yet, a small army of monsters.

He really needed some stress relief if he was hoping for an army of monsters.

"Okay, that's it!" Luke suddenly shouted as his two friends began trying to fight in the car. For the seventeenth time. Within the past hour.

"We are going straight to the Toyota Stadium, and we are going to fight whatever we find there, whether it's Clarisse's half-brothers or civilians playing soccer, and you two are going to give me some peace when we are done!"

"No plan, and half-cocked, I like this new Luke," Zoro grinned with anticipation at fighting some monsters.

"We do to have a plan," Clarisse grumbled, "Kill every monster we see, simple and effective."

Luke just groaned inaudibly, before finally giving in and embracing his inner bloodthirst, "I blame you guys if this goes wrong because we didn't get a hotel room first or anything."

"You were the one who said we should just do this, not me," Zoro shrugged.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

 **Team Percy**

Annabeth suddenly jerked up from where she was dozing on their train to St. Louis, and began looking around.

"What is it?" asked Ethan who was sitting next to her.

"I get the feeling that Team Meathead has just done something very stupid," she muttered with a frown creasing her forehead.

Percy looked up from where he was looking outside in the row behind them, "They probably just decided to throw away any kind of plan that they might have come up with. I mean, Zoro and Clarisse don't have any other plan than attack on the best of days, and Luke is probably too sleep deprived after driving down there to be any kind of moderator."

Annabeth looked horrified, "Luke does tend to want to pick fights without thought of consequence when he's sleep deprived, and knowing those three they'll probably head straight to the Dallas Burn's stadium without resting and get into a fight with two sons of Ares unprepared!"

"It'll be okay, Annabeth," Grover said earnestly, "They're strong enough to survive even in the worst case scenario, and we'll send them an Iris Message when we stop just to be sure."

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

 **Team Zoro**

"At least we're on the right track," Clarisse stated with a wild grin as she tore through more of the skeletal zombie warriors that crowded the stadium.

"That is not a good thing, besides it's obvious that even if your half-brothers were here, they aren't anymore," Luke sounded resigned and a little bit bored. While zombies had the advantage of numbers, not even zombie warriors were that difficult of a fight.

Zoro was in agreement with the ease of this fight, while zombies were good for letting off steam the weren't anywhere near a challenge. Add that to the fact that he had to run them down to kill them, because the undead feared Thanatos a lot, and it was almost more trouble than it was worth.

That, however, was when a scream sounded in the distance. The trio redoubled their efforts, moving even quicker. That scream sounded very young, and was coming from the direction of the greatest zombie concentration.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

 **Team Percy**

"I told you we shouldn't have come to the Arch," Ethan shouted, "But no, you had to see the engineering marvel. I could smell the reek of vengeance from a few hundred yards away, that usually means a monster with a general grudge against demigods that knows we're in the vicinity!"

"Fine," Annabeth shouted back, "If we all make it out of this alive, I promise to listen to your warnings more. I thought we could trust Grover's nose just as well, and miscalculated."

"Hey," Grover nervously stated in a much quieter tone, "Maybe you should tone it down a bit, people are starting to notice. And, um, Percy is fine."

Annabeth looked at him like he was crazy, "What are you talking about?"

"Ahh," Ethan cheerfully announced, "The hero returns, none the worse for wear! How did you survive again?"

Percy scratched the back of his head, seeming kind of nervous, "Well. I might have jumped into the river after that Chihuahua melted a hole in the arch."

"Are you insane!" Annabeth grabbed him by the front of his shirt and shook him a little, "The fall should have killed you! Honestly, what were you even thinking!"

"Ahh, here's the thing. The tail bit me, and as a son of the sea god water heals me pretty well from most poisons and venoms. I'd already gotten the vanilla mortals out of there so I just kind of jumped. No harm done, see?"

After a scream of general frustration and redoubled attempt at throttling from Annabeth, Grover worriedly checking Percy over, and a smirking Ethan snickering quietly to himself, they once more set off on their journey.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

 **Team Zoro**

After hacking their way through most of the monsters, they finally found the source of the screaming. It was a tiny kid, shaking and lost in his own mind, not even paying attention to the zombies.

"That kid is stuck in a waking nightmare. I'd say that this is the work of Phobos…" Clarisse said, before grimacing as she got a closer look, "His ability only works so long as he is present, but it seems whatever fear he showed this kid sent him back into some kind of flashback."

They all looked at the silent sobs the kid was now producing, curled up in a ball, before Zoro reached out to touch him.

The reaction was immediate, the kid skittered backwards and seemed to focus on them ever so slightly before he started mumbling, "No…. Stay away… don't want to… hurt…" and it ended with a sob.

"Hey kid, it's okay," Zoro said, softer than either Luke or Clarisse had ever heard him, "You wont hurt any of us, I promise. See, we took out all of those monsters easily, and we're all really tough. You can't hurt us, I promise." As Zoro said these things he slowly grabbed the kid and held him(it reminded him of all those times, as the first mate, he'd held and comforted other members of the crew, particularly Chopper who was much younger than the rest of them).

After a while the fear and panic bled from his eyes, and the kid fell asleep. Zoro picked him up and said lowly to his two friends, "We should get a hotel, and bring this kid with us."

Luke nodded, "Yeah, I couldn't tell at first, but he's a pretty powerful demigod. If we leave him alone, monsters will attack him for sure, and he's in no condition to defend himself or run."

And so they left to get a room for the night, with Clarisse claiming the kid as a little brother(Being that they both had brown hair, and the kids face was hidden in Zoro's neck).

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

 **Team Percy**

A golden coin flipped into a rainbow spray in a car wash.

"Camp Half Blood."

"Are you guys sure this'll work," Percy said dubiously, before the rainbow rippled and left the image of Chiron before them.

The centaur blinked at them before adopting a worried look, "Ah, is everything all right?"

"Yes, Chiron," Percy replied, before going on to say, "We just thought we'd check in and see how things were going at Camp."

"Of course," He sighed, "Have you heard any word from Luke or the others? I know you were planning on meeting in Nevada somewhere."

Annabeth immediately frowned, "No, and we tried them first. They might be busy fighting, though so I wouldn't worry too much yet. But what's wrong with you? You look upset."

Chiron grimaced, "Mr. D isn't back yet. He was called away soon after you left, but hasn't returned yet. It's highly unusual for him to be called away for so long. It can't be helped, I suppose. He'll probably be gone until after this mess has been cleared up."

"Mr. D's tough, Chiron, I'm sure he'll be okay," Percy said sympathetically, "And hey, at least he'll be able to give us a ride back to camp."

"Maybe he'll give Zoro a ride back, but the rest of us'll have to walk," Ethan snickered.

"Yes, you're right," Chiron seemed to brighten up a little, "Try and contact me again soon, it was good hearing from you, but I need to go now."

And with that, the Iris Message dissipated.

"Well," Ethan said with only minimal sarcasm, "What do we do now."

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

 **Team Zoro**

They ordered in a pizza.

And also apparently a fight. A couple of minor cannibalistic spirits had been using pizza delivery as a cover for finding people no one would miss and consuming them. It was a quick fight, but pleasing to take care of them nonetheless.

The kid didn't wake up through the noise, or even the smell of delicious pizza. It took Zoro(the kindest looking of the bunch… not that that was saying very much), gently shaking the kid awake to bring him out of his unconscious state.

The kid did scramble away from them at first, but after gentle reassurance from the three teens, the offering of a slice of pepperoni, and proof that they were not monsters(via cutting themselves and bleeding red) the kid finally calmed down enough to be willing to speak.

After he'd eaten his pizza, though.

Food is the best bribe, especially to a starving person. And the kid was probably starving, being that he was definitely homeless and far skinnier than a kid his age should be. Nine year olds shouldn't be skin and bone hobos on the run(though sadly, this happened to far too many halfbloods.).

"So, kiddo," Clarisse says after the pizza has been demolished, "Who exactly are you."

The Latino looking kid hesitated for a bit before quietly saying, "Leo Valdez."

Zoro nodded slowly before bluntly asking, "You do know that you're a demigod, and that monsters are real, right?"

Leo just looked confused at his words.

"Geeze, I guess this falls to me," Luke sighed, "Well, monsters are…"

"I know what monsters are, I just… The other part, demigod, that's new."

"It means that one of your parents was a god," Zoro frankly told him, "In your case a Greek god. It also means that the monsters think that you're a chocolate bar in a world full of broccoli, and all want to eat you."

A bit of hesitation and then Leo nodded.

"What, no disbelief?" Clarisse said while regarding him, "Normally new demigods are in way more denial."

"I don't want to believe you, but. It makes a lot of sense. And explains why… "

Luke nodded sympathetically, "A lot of weird and scary things happened, huh."

"So," Clarisse said, changing the subject a bit, "Do you have anywhere to go? Because if you don't you can stay with us, though there'll be a lot of monster fighting."

"But we won't let you get hurt," Luke added hastily.

Leo shook his head, saying in a tone with… way too much guilt, "My mother's dead."

The three teens simply shared a look while Leo seemed lost in his own head. Because a nine year old orphan should either have other relatives, or be in foster care somewhere, not wandering the streets as a vagrant and vulnerable to monster attacks.

And the the air in the hotel room simply froze as Leo looked at them, so heartbreakingly lost, and said, "Is there a… goddess… that is made of the earth, and sleeps when talking to you?"

"I don't think so," Luke said slowly, "It doesn't sound familiar, though that definitely sounds like something supernatural. Why do you ask?"

"She… is the reason… I killed my mother." And the kid buried his head in his hands, and started sobbing quietly.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*

 **:Don't worry, the Meatheads are nice. Also, most of next chapter will probably be Zoro's Team centric, with brief interlude to Percy and Co. due to Ares.**


End file.
